Animorphs: The Epidemic
by aizxana
Summary: The Yeerks are putting some kind of chemical into the city's water supply, in order to lure people to hospital and make them into Controllers. Can the Animorphs and the Fugitives work as a team on their first mission together to stop them?
1. Chapter 1: Game Over

**The Epidemic**

_This story continues takes place soon after the Fugitive's arrival in America, somewhere around books 16-19._

Chapter 1

My name is Jake.

And there was no way on earth that I could afford to lose this fight.

I took a deep breath, tensed all my muscles and focused my mind on the challenges that lay in front of me. Around me, I could hear the sound of gunfire and explosions.

"You might as well give up," my opponent said icily. I kept silent. There was no way I was going to give him the satisfaction of surrendering. My opponent laughed.

"There's no way you're gonna beat me on this one," he said, placing his finger on the trigger of his weapon. He took a step forward, his eyes glittering with triumph.

My opponent fired.

_Game Over_

I heaved a sigh of frustration.

"Marco, you cheat!" I exclaimed, throwing down my control stick. "You've played this game before!"

Marco laughed and put down his own stick. "How could I have played this before?" he grinned. "The school only got this thing yesterday."

"You've probably played it somewhere else," I retorted. "There's no way you could have known about that short-cut."

"You're just jealous because I worked it out quicker than you did," he said. "Better luck next time, buddy!"

Marco's my best friend. We've known each other seen we were in diapers, and we've been friends ever since. I have no idea why that guy continued to be my best friend. We're complete opposites. Different in everyway. I'm the serious, responsible type. He's the laughing, joking clowning-around type. The guy who always distracts you in class from doing your work. Unfortunately, he's also a lot smarter than me. He could probably be top of the class if he wanted to be. He just uses his brain for making stupid jokes all the time.

Just then, the bell rang. A kid watching me on the game sighed and muttered something about recess not being a long as it was in his old school.

"Saved by the bell, dude," Marco said, grinning at me. "You know, that was only level one. I dread to think how you're gonna cope with the boss levels."

"What makes you think you'll be any good later on? If you're telling the truth, and that was really the first time you'd played that, then how do you know it wasn't just a fluke? It could have been beginner's luck."

"Jake, you know me well enough to know that wasn't a fluke," he said, smirking.

I rolled my eyes and picked up my bag.

"Come on, dude, we'd better get to class. Mr Shaw will have a fit if we're late again."

This was what our life was like before the war. Before we became Earth's only defence against a race of evil, mind controlling alien Yeerks. I won't go into all that - it will only make me depressed and I'm sure you already know all you need to know. But that whole thing with the video game reminded me of the times before with became Animorphs, when Marco and I would be constantly joking about the most pointless little things in the world. Stuff like whether my favorite basketball ball team would beat his favorite. Whether Batman could take down Spiderman. You know, silly, mindless little things. Stuff to take our mind off our parents or our homework. Stuff any high school kid would chat about. And we still chatted about that sort of stuff occasionally. Usually when we weren't caught up in the middle yet another fight that we were _so _going to loose. Or when we didn't have another suicidal mission planned the day before a big paper was due in. We chatted about that sort of stuff when, for maybe an hour or so, we felt like normal kids. Normal, everyday, nothing-special kids. Unfortunately, those days were getting fewer and farther between.

We got to class and sat down at our seats. Yet another boring history lecture. It was Friday, and the last lesson of the day. Learning about some war that took placehundreds of years ago was the was the last thing I felt like doing, especially when we were in the middle of our own war. Reluctantly, I took out my text books and turned to the correct page, seriously hoping that I'd remembered to bring my homework with me. Hoping that I'd even remembered to _do _my homework. Beside me, I could see Marco doodling aimlessly in the margins of his notebook. I noticed he kept taking sly little looks behind him.

The teacher droned on. The kids tried to stopped themselves falling asleep. I tried to keep up with what Mr Shaw was taking about, but my mind kept drifting away to other things. Far more important things. Like the Fugitives. The new Animorphs we'd recently met. Four kids, maybe a year or two older than us, who had also been given the morphing power by an Andalite. They were now on the run from Visser Five - who the six of us had yet to meet - and had been ordered by the Andalite to come and find us. They'd travelled from Britain to here, entirely in morph, and had been in their fair share of battles along the way. We'd first met them when we were all down in the Yeerk Pool, trying to win a battle we'd never win. They'd morphed Andalites, and if I'm totally honest here, they'd saved our butts. We hadn't heard their whole story yet, but I think it was safe to say they'd be more than helpful in fighting the Yeerks. At least we knew they weren't Controllers. Tobias, the bird-boy, and Ax, our resistant Andalite, had been secretly been keeping an eye on them over the last few days, making sure they hadn't gone near any entrances to the Yeerk pool. They hadn't. They were clean.


	2. Chapter 2: Girls, Girls, Girls

Chapter 2

Suddenly, a piece of screwed up paper hit me, and I jerked by to reality. I spun round in my chair, narrowing my eyes as I searched for the source of the weapon. Marco, surprise surprise, was busily screwing up another piece of paper, ready to throw it at me.

"What are you doing?" I hissed. "Stop chucking paper at me."

"Jake, did you fall asleep or something? Everyone's gone. Class is over."

I looked around, and to my embarrassment I saw a bunch of my classmates streaming out of the room. Some were laughing at me. I felt myself blushing and stood up, throwing my books into my bag.

"What were you day-dreaming about?" Marco asked. "Cassie, I bet. I hope you managed to take notes. I need to copy yours when we get back."

"Actually, I was thinking Sam and the others," I said, lowering my voice. "Hang on. Why do you need to copy my notes? I'm the one who wasn't concentrating. I should be coping yours."

"Oh," said Marco, not meeting my eye. "Well, no reason," he mumbled. "I'm just a slow writer."

"Whatever," I said, walking towards the main exit of our block. "Lets head off. Are you getting the bus home?"

"Actually, there was a little something I needed to check out first," he said, heading in the opposite direction. "You go on ahead. I'll see you later."

There was something in his voice that raised my suspicions.

"What are you up to?" I asked, trying to catch his eye.

He shrugged, and muttered something inaudible.

"I didn't catch that, dude," I said, coming to a halt. "What are you up to?"

Marco stopped walking. He ran a hand through his hair and looked at me.

"Fine," he said. "I'll tell you. Just don't laugh. And don't start yelling at me either."

"Yell at you? Why would I do that? Marco - you'd better tell me what's going on," I said impatiently.

"Ok," he said, shifting his feet nervously. "You know that new girl in class?"

"Nina? The Chinese girl?"

"Yeah. Well, I have to say it. She's cute. Mega-cute. So cute, she even stands me up."

I rolled my eyes. A girl. We were right in the middle of an intergalactic war, not to mention far behind on our classwork, and Marco was interested in a girl.

"That was why you were so distracted in class," I said. "Nina was sitting right behind us."

"Correct," he said. "And I think she made a pass at me earlier, although I couldn't be sure."

"She hit on you? Yeah, right, Marco."

"She did!" he insisted. "At least I think she did. Anyway, it was enough of a pass to get me interested in her."

"So, what's the problem?" I asked. I could sense where this was going, and I didn't like it.

"I think she's going out with that guy on the soccer team," Marco replied. "Darren. That stupid blond guy with more muscle than brain power. But I can't be sure."

"Marco…"

"So I thought I'd follow her. She plays tennis on Friday afternoons, and I was see if that Darren guys was with her."

I knew I was missing something here. "So, we'll just walk that way back," I said. "See if they're together."

"I can't do that, Jake," Marco said. "I can't let her see me. If she sees me, she'll know for sure I'm spying on her and won't be interested anymore!"

"If she's with Darren, she's not gonna be interested anyway."

"Well, I can't take that chance," he insisted. "I need to make sure."

He headed off in the direction of the changing rooms by the gym.

"You're not going to morph?" I asked incredulously. "No way, Marco."

"Just for a few minutes," he said, like that made all the difference. "Morph-check-done. It won't take five minutes."

"I don't care how long it will take, Marco. Whether it's five minutes or five hours. The point is, we can't just go round using our powers for silly reasons like spying on girls. Don't you remember last time you tried that with Darlene? We all ended up getting attacked by a live tornado!"

Marco ignored me and walked into the changing rooms and began checking out the cubicles for other people. The place was deserted. I sighed.

"You going to do this whatever I say, aren't you?"

"I certainly am," he said, stripping off his outer layers of clothes to reveal his morphing outfit. "You can come with me if you like."

"I'm not getting involved too! Anyway, I'm not wearing my morphing suit."

"You can morph in your underpants. Besides, I might need someone to watch my back," he suggested. "Or to keep an eye on me? Make sure I don't do anything stupid?"

I rolled my eyes, knowing I was defeated. "Don't say a word of this to Cassie," I warned. "She'll feed me to the wolves if she knows I've let you do something like this."

"Excellent," said Marco grinning. "Thanks. Seriously. And I won't say a word to anyone."

"What are you going to morph?" I asked, taking off my jacket.

"I was thinking spider," he said. "It's not far to the tennis courts."

"Well I was going to go lizard," I said, "so could you choose something else to morph? I had a rather bad experience with a spider the first time I'd morphed a lizard."

"Fine, I'll go mouse. You'd better find something to wedge the door open with, or we won't be able to get out of the changing rooms."

"Why me? This was your dumb idea." I rolled my eyes, then picked up a sneaker from the lost property basket and used it to hold the door open.

"See you in a second," Marco said as he entered one of the private cubicles. I entered a cubicle of my own and removed most of my clothes, tucking them under the bench. Hopefully, they would still be there when I got back. Normally, I keep my morphing suit - a strange ensemble of cycling shorts and a tight tee-shirt - on underneath my normal clothes. But my mom had decided to wash them today, and I'd gone to school hoping for a Yeerk and morph-free day. I sighed again at the craziness of my life, and began to concentrate on the image of the lizard, whose DNA was floating around in my veins. Immediately, I felt the changes begin. I began to shrink. It felt like I was falling. Falling but never quite hitting anything, and always with my feet on the ground. The walls, which had seemed dominating and claustrophobic a few seconds earlier, now formed the constructs of a huge stadium-size hall. My clothes became enormous sheets of rough, brightly patterned mountains. A half eaten Mars bar grew so the size of a car. A wad of gum became a gruesome, sticky boulder. As I shrunk, my skin turned green, becoming hard and thick. My arms and legs shortened, my fingers and toes forming the little claws on the lizard. I fell forwards, no longer able to stand on two legs. My face bulged outwards, my eyes rolled to either side of my head, forming a snout. My mouth became a huge grin, filled with sharp little teeth. My tongue became long, thin and snake like. A long, whip-like tail shot out of the end of my spine. Finally, I felt the lizard's mind surface below my own. When you morph an animal, you don't just take on the animal's form - you get it's instincts in there as well. Sometime they're helpful, like when we first learned to fly as birds, but other times, they can be overpowering. Right now, I could feel the lizard urging me to run after a fly it could sense in the main changing area. I shuddered, forcing my human mind to take control. No way was I going to let myself eat a fly for lunch. I focused my mind, resisting the urges.

--Are you morphed yet?-- I asked Marco in thought speak. It's like telepathy. It allows us to communicate when we're in morph. As humans, we can hear thought-speak, but we can't send it.

--Yeah,-- replied Marco. --Whoa! I'd forgotten how hyper mice are! Talk about being plugged into the mains electricity line!--

I scuttled under the door, and was soon face-to-face with a huge, brown snuffling face.

--Jeez, Marco, from down here, that mouse is one ugly little creature.--

--This?-- said Marco, in mock protest. --This is one of the cutest little creatures I've morphed so far! Look at these little whiskers. Look at these little eyes. Only I can out-cute this creature. --

--Would you for once stop talking about how cute you think you are?-- I said haughtily. --It's like, really disturbing.--

--That comes from a guy who's a lizard,-- he replied.

--Whatever. Come on, we'd better get on with this dumb mission before I bite your stupid tail off.--


	3. Chapter 3: Move It!

Chapter 3

--Marco! I seriously hope you know where you're going! These lizard eyes are useless. I have no idea where we are.--

--Don't worry, I know the school like the back of my hand. My human hand, that is. I'm not one-hundred percent familiar with my mouse paws.--

We were scampering along the corridors of the school, dodging the stampedes of feet as students rushed to get out of school. My eyesight was terrible. All the colors seemed to be messed up. I could make out black and white clearly enough, but things I knew to be one colour, I saw as another. This was rather disturbing when I thought I saw Mr. Atkins, my English teacher wearing a hot-pink shirt and purple tie.

--Ok, Jake, we're just coming up to the main entrance. Be ready to go when someone opens the doors,-- Marco advised.

--I think you'll have to be the judge of that,-- I said reluctantly. --Just don't go shooting off without me.--

Having eyes just two centimetres from the ground was not particularly useful. We darted in and out of the student's legs, trying to get to the door without being squashed. Luckily, the door was permanently latched open with the chaotic river of kids trying to escape. We managed to slip through the doors and out into the open air without too much trouble.

-- I guess we've got to go right,-- Marco called. --I think the tennis courts are by the main block.--

--You think? I thought you said you knew these grounds like the back of your hand!-- Honestly. Why did I agree to this?

--I do!-- he protested. --We're just looking at the place from a slightly different point of view.--

--Slightly? We're a lizard and a mouse! How much different can you get?-- I huffed. I was hoping to have a nice morph-free afternoon, getting on with some homework and maybe chatting to Cassie on the phone.

Marco shot off towards the playing fields, nimbly moving between the hundreds of feet passing left and right of us. I powered my little lizard legs and went after him, trying to keep him in my line of sight.

--You're just in a mood because I managed to beat you twice this afternoon.-- Marco laughed. --Maybe you should get some practice on that game if you want to beat me next time.--

--That's if we survive this thing,-- I said stonily. --Why didn't we morph seagulls? They would have been so much better.--

--Guess I didn't think of that,-- Marco replied. --I suppose gulls would have looked a bit suspicious flying through the school corridors anyway. Might have got the teachers in a panic though!-- he added as an afterthought.

We crossed the playing field and made our way across the grass down to the tennis courts, where I could make out a number of people practising.

--Let's get a bit closer,-- said Marco. --I want to be sure who she's with.--

--I think we're close enough,-- I said. --Some of them might be Controllers.--

--Well, we're not going to look out of place here,-- Marco said, ignoring me and scampering up to the fence. I sighed and joined him. We peered through the wire fences, trying to make out which girl was Nina.

--Aww man!-- Marco cried suddenly. --She's hanging out with Darren! And the two of them look more than just friends.--

--Are you sure it's her?-- I asked. --Where is she?--

--Standing a by the right-hand fence. Neither of them are playing.--

I looked in the direction Marco had said, and sure enough, Nina was standing with a tall, blond guy. She was dressed in traditional tennis wear, with a white skirt and tight white top, bouncing a ball on her racket. She was laughing and joking with Darren, who wasn't dressed for sport, but was carrying her coat and bag.

--Sorry, dude,-- I said. --Guess you'll just have to find some other girl to prey on.--

--He's blatantly only with her for her legs!-- Marco whined. --He's too dumb to appreciate her personality. Look at the way he keeps looking at her.--

--Marco - have _you_ ever said more than two words to her? You're the one who's only interested in her for her looks. You've just turned into a mouse to watch her.--

--I didn't morph to sit here watching her all day! I only came to see if she was with Darren!--

--Well, if you're not going to stick around all day, I suggest we hurry up and get out of here. I've got a ton of homework to do for Monday, and a paper I was supposed to hand in last week.--

--Yeah, fine,-- Marco said, dragging himself away from watching Nina. --Can't that guy go find some dizzy airhead on his level?--

--They'll be more girls out there,-- I said, heading back to the school. --I'm sure some will be interested in you. As long as you keep your mouth shut, and a paper bag over your head, you'll be fine.--

--You are so going to resent that,-- he laughed, following me across the grass.

Suddenly…

--What's that?-- yelped Marco, suddenly, running like a squirrel on caffeine.

--What's what?-- I asked. My hearing was good, but nothing compared to a mouse's.

--That roaring noise!--

I spun around, as fast as my little legs could go. And came face to face with a raging, gnashing, metal monster. A lawn mower!

--Argghh!-- I yelled.

--Arrghh!-- cried Marco, even louder. I hoped he hadn't screamed in thought-speak. We'd have alerted every Controller in the state to our presence.

--Run!-- I ordered.

We ran. Ran like antelopes trying to get away from a cheetah. Ran like we were being chased by Visser Three in one of his awful new morphs

--How come you didn't hear it earlier?-- I demanded, my little lizard lungs about to burst. --Maybe you thought telling me like a seond earlier gave us too much warning?--

--I didn't notice it!-- Marco yelled, as we finally reached a path. We came to a stop, breathing heavily from exhaustion. The mower wouldn't be able to go over the concrete.

--How could you not notice the thing? I thought mice were supposed to have good hearing?--

--Look - we're ok now, and that's all that matters,-- Marco said, attempting to avoid having to make an apology.

--Yeah well, there's no way I'm babysitting one of your girl-hunts again,-- I said. --What a stupid thing to do! Come on. Let's demorph. I don't want to be in this morph a moment longer than I have to.--

We made our way back up to the changing rooms and demorphed. Luckily, there was no one else around. Most people prefer to use the newer changing rooms on the other side of the block. I concentrated on my human self, watching the changes to begin. Demorphing is usually easier than morphing. You're much more familiar with your own, human self, so it's easier to picture your body in your mind, than it is to picture a dog or a cat. It's not less strange through. The look of your arm as it turns from scaly green to soft and pink, or the sickening sounding crunch of your bones as they change direction, is enough to send anyone running and screaming if they didn't know what they were looking at. Luckily for us, we'd had plenty of practice.

"You done yet?" Marco called a few minutes later from the cubicle next to me.

"Nearly," I said, watching my tail disappear into my spine. I heard him unlatch the door and it down on one of the benches. I finished off the last of the changes and pulled on my jeans and tee-shirt, which luckily were still where I'd left them. It would have been pretty embarrassing to arrive home in my underpants. I stepped ut of the cubicle and glared at Marco.

"No. More. Morphing. For. Personal. Reasons," I said, looking at him sternly in the eye. Marco rolled his eyes and grabbed his bag.

"You're still just jealous from the video game," he muttered, heading out into the corridor. "Can't see how I managed to beat you."


	4. Chapter 4: You Owe Me!

Chapter 4

"I need to pick up some books from my locker," I told Marco as we walked through the new deserted school corridors. "I would have done it after class, but _someone _distracted me."

"I didn't distract you, you pressed me for information," Marco replied. "I wouldn't have bothered telling you if you hadn't gotten all suspicious."

"It's my job to be suspicious," I said, reaching my locker. It's one of those big, full length ones, and where I'd performed my first lizard morph. Dodgy, I know, but it was the best I could do at the time. I dialed in the combination and opened the door.

"So don't go complaining," Marco said, as I took out my math textbook. Yet another fascinating chapter to work though when I got home. As if I didn't already have enough to think about with the Fugitives and all that.

"I'm not complaining," I said, about to shut the door. However, I noticed a folded piece of paper on one of the upper shelves which I hadn't noticed before. Someone must have passed it through the ventilation gaps.

"What's that?" asked Marco, as I took the slip of paper.

"I think it's a note," I said, unfolding it. I recognized the handwriting immediately.

"It's from Cassie," I said, reading though. Cassie's another member of our little team. She's really into animals and is great with people's feeling s and all that. I guess you could say I like Cassie. You know. _Like _like.

"She wants to arrange a meeting at her barn after school," I said, looking at my watch. It was already nearly four o clock. "So much for a relaxing evening."

I pulled out the cell phone my dad gave me to use for emergencies and dialed Cassie's number. Her mom answered.

"Hi, is Cassie there?" I asked.

"Hey, Jake," Cassie's mother said. "Yeah, Cassie's here. She was just talking about you. I'll just go get her."

"Aww, Jake's girlfriend was telling her mommy all about you!" Marco teased. He had obviously been listening in. I gave him a quick shove. He shoved me back. I tripped and fell against my locker, bashing my arm.

"Ow!" I exclaimed. "Don't do that!"

"Don't do what?" said a voice. Cassie had just picked up the phone.

"Oh, hey," I said hastily. "Sorry, Cassie, ignore that. I was talking to Butt-Head here. He just slammed me into my locker."

"Good grief, you two," she said. "Did you get my note?"

"Yeah…I only just got it though. Mr. Shaw kept us on for a bit of remedial history," I lied.

"Right," she said. I could tell she didn't believe me - Cassie can see straight through anyone's lies - but she didn't say anything.

"So, you wanted us to come round to prepare for that presentation?" I asked. The presentation thing was of course a code for meeting. We had to be careful not to give anything away, in case anyone was listening on the other end of the line.

"Yeah, but you'll have to come round later now," said Cassie. "My dad wants me to go up to the woods with him soon. Some injured badger I think."

"Ok," I said, feeling a little guilty that I hadn't called her before the whole lizard thing. "I'll call the others, shall I? Let them know?"

"Oh, I already called them. I said I'd call back when I knew if you were free. Could you call Tobias and Ax and ask them to tell Sam and the others?"

"Sure," I replied. We'd managed to get Ax a cell phone too, so that we could call him if anything came up. We were planning to get another phone for Sam's team, but we were all running out of money. Cell phones aren't cheap.

I said good-bye to Cassie and hung up.

"Can you get round to the barn at about six?" I asked Marco.

"Yeah, I guess," he replied. "Did she say what it was about?"

"No, she just said Rachel had over heard something this afternoon and wants to tell us about it."

"Ah," he replied. "I guess bang goes another evening to catch up on my work."

"Marco, if you'd worked on your essay just now, instead of following girls, maybe you'd have more time," I sighed.

We headed out of the school gates and jumped on the bus.

"Catch you later, dude," I said, getting off at my stop. "Try not do to any more silly things before then!"

"Me, silly?" he laughed. "See you at six then."

I walked the last two blocks back to the house, knowing that any evening I'd planned doing homework and watching The X Files was soon to go out the window. I reached our house and crossed the drive of our house, where my parent's cars were parked. My dad's was in the drive, too. He usually tries to finish early on a Friday.

"Hey, dad," I called, entering the house and dumping my bags in the hall.

"Jake, hey," he said, coming out of the living room and patting me amicably on the back. "How was school?"

"Yeah, it was alright," I said shrugging. _Just did a bit of morphing, turned into a lizard - the usual_. "Had to have had the most boring history lesson ever. How was work?"

"Pretty chaotic, as a matter of fact," my dad said, shuffling through his briefcase, which was full of notes. He's a doctor, and generally has his hands full during the week. I think he's looking for a promotion in the new year, and tends to bring a lot of his work home with him. "Had about ten patients all in with the same symptoms. Pretty weird. Like flu or something. Must be something in the water. I had to refer them all to the general hospital. I was lucky to be able to get away early."

Just then, my mom came in through the front door, followed by my brother Tom, who went straight up to his room. Tom's a Controller, although I still find it difficult to accept. Even now, after coming face to face with him in battle, I still hate admitting the fact to myself.

"Hi, honey," my mom said, giving me a kiss before she'd even shut the front door. Why does she always have to kiss me in front of the neighbors?

"Hey, mom," I sighed, wandering into the kitchen. I pulled out a loaf of bread from the cupboard and started making myself a sandwich. It felt so normal. Something very rare since I'd become an Animorph.

"Oh, Jake, I meant to ask you," said my mom, stuffing dirty laundry into the machine. "Jean, from next door. She needs a babysitter for tonight and wondered if you'd be interested in earning a few bucks?"

"Oh," I said, feeling a little guilty. Jean, our neighbor, had been ill for the last couple of days, and I'd popped into see her the day before last before she went into hospital. "Um, I actually needed to catch up on some work tonight," I said. "I've got a paper due Monday and Cassie has asked me round the evening to go over a presentation for Tuesday."

"Can't you rearrange?" she asked. "It's the first time Jean's been able to get out since she got ill. You can take your work round there and get on with it while the twins are asleep."

"I'm really not sure, mom, I did kinda promise Cassie. Where's Jean off to, anyway? Is she better now, then?"

"Oh, I think it's a Sharing meeting. Tom's going too."

My ears pricked up at this. The Sharing is like a front organization for Controllers. They pretend to be some kind of boy and girl scouts group, clearing up and the community and all that, but really it's a way to recruit new Controllers. That's how Tom became a Controller. He went along, hoping to ask out some girl. He came out with a Yeerk in his head. Now, it seemed like Jean was a Controller, too.

"Look, mom…" I said, trailing off. I really couldn't think of any more excuses. But just then, Tom walked into the kitchen holding a pile of dirty soccer shirts, which he began throwing into my mom's linen basket.

"Hey, midget," he said, or rather, the Yeerk in his head said. "Sorry, mom, but Jake promised me he'd come to The Sharing with me later. So no babysitting for him tonight."

"What?" I spun round. "I never said that!" No way was that Yeerk going to drag me to become a Controller.

"Yeah you did. You agreed last night."

"Do you have to go tonight, Jake?" asked my mom. "Can't it be next week?" Thank god for pushy parents.

"Tonight's a special meeting," Tom insisted. "I guess Jean will have to find someone else to look after the kids. She's a member anyway, I'm sure she'll be able to find someone."

"Fine," my mother said. "I guess it's nice that you two are finally doing something together for a change. She smiled at us and went upstairs. I glared at Tom. I had to find a way out of this.

"Tom, you butt-wipe!" I said, playing the annoyed little brother act. "I never told you I'd go along!"

"Too late now, little bro," he said, throwing a dirty sock at me. "I just bailed you out of babysitting. You owe me."

"Can't I owe you in some other way? Like cleaning your room?"

"Yeah right. I'm not letting you near my stuff. Come on, Jakey," he teased. "Just this one meeting. And no screaming kids to put to bed."

"I would have rather gone babysitting than come to one of your dumb meetings," I said. Then, out of interest,

"What's so special about tonight, anyway?"

"Oh, Mr. Visser is coming along," Tom replied. I looked up at him, feeling a chill go up my spine. Mr Visser is Visser Three, the leader of the Yeerk invasion of Earth. I guess he's not too imaginative when it comes to thinking up human surnames. If he was coming along to the meeting, maybe the Yeerks were planning something big.

"Fascinating," I said dryly. Maybe I should go along, just to check things out. One meeting shouldn't be any harm, after all. Tom told me before you need to be a casual member for a few weeks before you're made a full member. A Controller.

"So, you'll come?" he asked. "It's only for a couple of hours. I'm sure you'll enjoy it. You can bring Marco if you like. You'll have a laugh."

"Yeah, yeah," I said impatiently. "Fine. What time?"

"Meeting starts at eight, so we'll have to set off at about seven forty-five." He cocked his head and looked at me. "Seriously though, Jake. You should open your mind to things a bit more. There's so many possibilities out there that I'd never have known if it wasn't for The Sharing."


	5. Chapter 5: A Team Of Ten

Chapter 5

I spent the next hour or so in the living room, half doing homework, half thinking about the evening ahead. It was going to be a busy night. A meeting at Cassie's, followed by some spying on the Sharing. There was no way I could do that alone. I'd have to rope one of the others into coming along with me. Tom was already expecting Marco, and it would be useful for one of the new guys to attend a meeting as well, to see how the organization worked.

At ten to six, I made an excuse to skip dinner and went up to my bedroom locking the door. I stripped off most of my clothes and stepped into my morphing outfit. None of us have been able to morph normal clothes like jeans or sweaters, and never shoes, but at least the tight suits kept us from dying from embarrassment when we morphed in front of each other.

I opened my window fully and began to focus on the DNA of my bird of prey morph inside of me. Soon, the changes began. A light feather pattern appeared all over my skin, like the invisible man was drawing all over me with a tattoo pen. Suddenly, the feathers popped out of my skin, becoming three-dimensional. I began to shrink, although so not much as when I'd morphed the lizard. And the shrinking wasn't making me feel any weaker, either. If anything, it was making me feel stronger.

My hair disappeared into my head. My nose and mouth hardened and pushed outwards, forming a sharp, hooked beak. My eyes became huge and dark, my eyesight became laser sharp. A raptor's eyesight is incredible. I could see little ants crawling around in the undergrowth at the far end of my garden. My hearing was amazing, too. I could hear Tom moving about in his room next to mine. No doubt getting up to some more Yeerk business.

Finally, my arms stretched out into wings and a tail appeared from my backside. I felt the bird's mind, hungry but possessing a good deal of self control, surface beneath my own. I gave a squawk and flapped up onto the window sill. I was a peregrine falcon.

I flew straight over to Cassie's farm, wondering what the Yeerks were up to, in order to have Visser Three at a Sharing meeting. Then, I wondered whether I'd be able to get through the evening without morphing a tiger and taking the guy down there and then.

--Hey, Jake.-- I head a voice below me. --That is you, right?--

I looked around and saw a red tailed hawk circling above me. He swooped down past me, accelerating into a dive, heading for Cassie's.

--Yeah, it's me,-- I called to Tobias. --Cassie got you the massage?-- I pulled my wings back and went into a dive, soon over-taking Tobias. Tobias might have had far more practice than the rest of us in hawk morph, but there are some things in nature that just can't be beaten. And a healthy peregrine falcon, the fastest animal on earth, cannot be out-flown.

--Yeah, I'm just showing Philip back to the barn. We've just been out flying.--

I strained my eyes, and saw a large brown hawk - a British buzzard - riding the thermals above me.

--Cool,-- I said, swooping down. Tobias and Philip followed me and we landed on the roof of Cassie's barn. We hopped in through the roof-window, and Philip and I fluttered down on the floor of the barn. Tobias stayed up in the rafters, keeping watch. He didn't need to demorph.

"Hey, guys," said Cassie, walking into the barn carrying a big bucket of dirty water. "It's ok, you can demorph. My parents are both out now. Hey, Philip. You found the way back ok?"

--Yeah, Tobias showed me the way,-- Philip replied, demorphing. Philip is one of the new Animorphs, one of the fugitives, who'd come all the way from the UK on the run from Visser Five, to help us out with the fight against the Yeerks. There's also Philip's brother, Ferdinand, Ferdie's girlfriend, Sam, who's kind of their leader, and a hot-headed Scottish girl called Maggie.

I finished demorphing, and laid back on one of the bales on hay in the barn. Cassie's barn is really the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic, a kind of care-center for injured animals. The barn is full with cages holding birds, foxes and other wild animals, and is always very noisy and very smelly. Out in the yard, there are paddocks and fields for goats and horses, and a big green pond for the ducks. Both Cassie's parents are vets. Her dad runs the clinic, and her mom works up at the Gardens, a kind of combined zoo and amusement park. Cassie was the one who'd got us access to most of our morphs, and knows more about animals than the rest of us put together.

"Are the others here yet?" I asked. By the others, I meant all ten of us. The five of us, Ax the Andalite, and the four new guys. It was strange, there being so many of us now.

"Maggie's here," Cassie replied. "She's been helping me groom the horses. And I think Rachel took Sam out shopping. Not sure where Ferdie, Marco and Ax are, though."

Just then, Maggie entered the barn. Like Cassie, she was dressed in old, mud-splattered overalls and muddy boots. She dumped the brushed she was carrying down by one of the cages and grinned at me.

"Heya, Jake," she said, her accent reminding me of Willy from The Simpsons. She ran her hand through her bushy red hair, trying to remove some of the dried dirt that had settled in it.

"Hi, Maggie," I said. "You been helping Cassie with her chores then?"

"Aye, I don't mind at all though. I love animals. My parents did this save-the-rhinos project in Africa a few years back."

"I don't suppose you want to give us a hand, do you, Jake?" Cassie asked.

"Sure," I said. Like I could say no to her. I picked up a broom and started sweeping up some of the hay that was scattered on the concrete floor.

--Whoa, am I dreaming, or has Cassie finally managed to rope Jake into doing her work?--

Marco, in osprey morph, came sailing in through the roof window. He settled down on the floor and began to demorph. He smirked at me sweeping away and sat down on an upturned bucket. That made six of us.

I heard a giggling outside, and turned round to see two girls enter the barn. One was Rachel, my super-glamorous cousin, carrying a sports bag on one shoulder and way too many shopping bags over the other. She smiled when she saw Tobias. The other girl was a tall and muscular, with coarse, light blonde hair and strangely dark eyes.

"Hey, people," the curly-haired girl said. She went quiet for a second, and I watched as her features shifted subtly. Her black eyes became a light hazel color, her hair became dark brown, almost black, and straight. She became a couple of inches shorter, a little less muscular, and her clothes became a little baggier.

"How's it going, Sam?" I asked the girl, who was an expert in partial-morphs. Sam was the leader of the four British Animorphs, and with me being the unofficial leader of us American Animorphs, I hoped we'd be able to work well together.

"All good," she replied. "Rachel and I have just been shopping together." She placed a handful of bags - mostly marked with a big red Sale sign - down by one of the cages and nodded to the rest of us.

"They had some great sales at the mall," Rachel said happily. I saw she was wearing an expensive-looking new jacket. "Sam really needed some new clothes, and we managed to get some awesome bargains!"

"I don't see how you two have time to shop," Marco complained. "All I've been doing all afternoon is homework."

I stole a glace at Marco. He gave me an innocent look back. How can he lie so naturally like that?

"I persuaded Rachel to go to a kick-boxing class, too" Sam said. "I used to do it before this whole Yeerk thing, and I thought she'd enjoy it."

"Yeah, it was brilliant! Maybe not as brilliant as fighting a bunch of Hork-Bajir in grizzly morph, but it was sure a great way to kick some butt."

I laughed. Rachel might look like some air-head fashion victim, but in reality, she's more like a gung-ho army solider. Marco calls her _Xena: Warrior Princess_. She lives for the thrill of the battle, and is usually the first to go for something dangerous or perilous. Sometimes, it even scares me a little.

At last, the final two members of our team turned up. Ax, in his northern harrier morph, fluttered in through the open door and settled sensibly on a hay bale where he began to demorph.

--God after noon, Prince Jake,-- he said. Somehow, Ax has got in into my head that because I'm the leader, he has to call me 'Prince'. It really bugs me, but I've given up on asking him not to do it. I had no idea what he'd call Sam. To be honest, he probably wouldn't even acknowledge her as our second in command.

--Hey, Ax,-- said Tobias from the rafters. --How's it going?--

--It is going fine, Tobias.-- Ax replied. Ax and Tobias are pretty close. They both see themselves as outcasts, and have made their home in the woods just beyond Cassie's farm. I turned away from watching Ax demorph. Going from hawk to human is not a pretty process. Going from hawk to Andalite is even worse.

"Is Ferdie here?" Sam asked Ax. I think Ferdie and her are going out together.

--Yes, Sam, he should be on his way right now,-- the Andalite replied, beginning to morph to human. Having a blue-furred, scorpion-tailed deer about was bound to attract attention.

Without warning, a piercing scream filled my mind.

--Yeee haaah!-- A tiny little falcon, called a hobbie, suddenly soared through the roof window at a thousand miles an hour. It circled the barn, skimming out of the rafters for a few movements, the dived down towards the ground, pulling up just seconds from hitting the floor.

"Sheesh, Flawless," said Philip. "Make sure you grab everyone's attention. Just try not to kill yourself before I do."

--Lighten up, Philip,-- said Ferdie, landing on the ground and beginning to demorph. --Just because you got lost on the way here.--

"I didn't get lost!" Philip retorted.

--Yeah, you did. Tobias had to rescue you.--

"That is by no means accurate. Tobias and I went flying together."

I laughed to myself. The two brothers squabbling reminded me so much of Marco and I at the arcade.

Ferdie finished demorphing, and threw himself down lazily on to a hay bale. He was a tall, muscular guy, a year or so older than I was. He had shaggy, strawberry blonde hair, and tanned, freckly skin. I guess a lot of girls would say he was cute, although being a guy, I wouldn't know for sure. Sam obviously liked him. She came down over to us and sat beside Ferdie.

"We got you guys some more clothes," she said to Ferdie, Philip and Maggie. "Rachel and I have been hitting the sales!"

"Marvelous," said Ferdie. He had a very strong British accent, and in my opinion, sounded rather full of himself. The two brothers are some kind of English aristocrats, and it certainly shows in their self-confidence and Andalite-like arrogance. Philip sounded a lot like Pierce Brosnan in James Bond. Ferdie looked, and sounded, more like Prince Harry - he had the same cheeky humor and reckless nature. A lot like Rachel, I came to realize.

"Let's have a look," said Maggie, helping Cassie change the bandage of a goose. "What did you get?"

"A few changes of clothes to take down to the valley," she said. "Not sure how we're going to get them there, but I guess we'll find a way."

The four new Animorphs have been living down in the Hork-Bajir valley the Ellimist created for us. As their names and faces are well known to the Yeerks, it is dangerous for them to walk about in the city, or rent a hotel room, incase they are recognized. The six of us had briefed Toby, the leader of the Hork-Bajir, on their situation, and they'd been more than willing to help them out. Tobias and Ax had been spending the last few days flying down and helping them build shelters, tree houses and gather clean water. Philip, apparently, had been an officer in the British army for a few months, and knew a thing or two about living in the field.

"Cool," Maggie, taking a bag of clothes from Sam and rifling though it.

"Rachel chose most of the stuff," Sam told her. "You cannot drag the girl away from a sale!"

Rachel laughed and tossed her long, blonde hair over her shoulder. She began passing out the rest of the clothes.

"I thought these would suit Ferdie," she said. "I think I managed to get your style. Smart but casual, and with plenty of designer labels."

"Great stuff, Rachel," said Ferdie, flashing her a smile of dazzling white teeth - very unlike most British mouths I'd seen! "Loving the polo shirt!"

"Some 'trousers' and a navy lambs wool sweater for Philip - or 'jersey', I should say!" Rachel laughed, passing Philip a neatly folded pile clothes. "And some combats and tee-shirts for Maggie."

"We got some new morphing outfits, too," Sam said. "I think ours are reaching the end of their lives." She glanced at Maggie's red leotard, which was full of holes and tears. "Two weeks crossing the Atlantic really took it's toll."

"How did you get the money for all that stuff?" Marco asked. "That sweater looks really expensive."

"Oh, I gave them the money," said Ferdie casually. "I've got an on-line bank account. Philip just created some program to prevent anyone from finding out that we'd accessed the account from the US, and I transferred the money electronically to Rachel's account."

"Don't do that too often," I laughed. "Rachel can go mad when it comes to having a sale. And maybe you should ask Ax to help you create a program next time. He knows more about computers than any human can."

"Programming a human computer is remarkable simple," said Ax. "Simple. Im-pul. Pul. Remark-cab-ly simp-ul."

I sighed. Since Andalites don't have mouths, it is common for Ax to want to play around with 'mouth sounds', as he called them, when he's in human morph. At least there was no food about. Andalites only have a limited sense of taste, and Ax around a cinnamon bun is one dangerous and disturbing being.

"Well, if we're all here, perhaps we could get to business," I said. "Although I can tell that in the future getting us all together like this is going to take a whole lot more planning that we're used to."

"Right-ho, Fearless Leader," said Marco, emphasizing to Sam who was in charge. "Let's get on with this. I've got shed-loads of work to do and don't really want to be up half the night planning our next suicide attempt."


	6. Chapter 6: Preparation and Planning

Chapter 6

"So, what's going on then?" I asked Rachel. "I've got something to ask everyone later, but first things first. Cassie said you had some news for us?"

Rachel, who was busily trying on yet another new jacket, looked up.

"Oh yeah," she said. "Well, I was at gymnastics training yesterday evening, and I slipped off the beam and sprained my ankle."

Marco started laughing. "Poor Rachel," he mocked. "Did it hurt real bad?"

"Shut up, Marco," Rachel said, throwing a clod of dirt at him. "Anyway, my ankle kinda swelled up a bit, and my mom insisted on taking me to hospital to get it X-rayed."

"Couldn't you have just morphed?" Philip asked. "I thought morphing healed injuries."

"Yeah, it does, but there were like, loads of people around and I didn't get a chance. So I had no choice but to go along with it and morph later."

"So…what happened?" I asked.

"Well, I was in the waiting room, and I saw loads of guys we know to be Controllers sitting and standing around. I've recognized them from the Yeerk Pool. But the strange thing was, they didn't seem to be ill. They looked like they were keeping watch or something."

"Strange," said Philip. "What about the doctors? Do you know if any of them were Controllers?"

"I did see one women, who I think is a Controller, but I couldn't be sure," Rachel replied. "I only recognized her because she had the most awful haircut you can imagine."

Marco rolled his eyes at this. "Anything else, apart from freaky haircuts?"

Rachel gave him a sour look. "Yeah," she continued. "There were loads of people in the waiting room with what looked like the same symptoms. Like flu or something. They were getting passed through the systems really quickly - and they all went with the Controller doctors."

"Did you recognize any of those patients as Controllers?" Sam asked.

"No, but I swear all the healthy Controllers were like staring at them. Like they were keeping an eye on them or something."

"My dad said something about an epidemic at his practice," I said. "He's a GP," I mentioned to Sam and the others. "He said he had to refer them all to the city hospital."

--Sounds a bit dodgy,-- Tobias said. --You don't think the Yeerks are finding some way to make patients into Controllers?--

"If they were, they'd have to have control of at least one department or ward," Cassie said. "Any patients who go in for a specific treatment would be those targeted. Otherwise, it would be really random for the Yeerks."

"Well, I don't think this is the sort of thing we'll be able to work out in a couple of minutes," said Philip, pulling on his new sweater. "What was that thing you wanted to ask us, Jake?"

"Oh, yeah. Tom wants me to go with him to a meeting of The Sharing tonight," I said.

"I thought he asked you every week?" said Rachel.

"Yeah, but this time, he bailed me out of babysitting next door's twins. So now he figures I owe him. Or at least, the Yeerk in his head does," I added, for the benefit of the new Animorphs.

"You're not gonna go with him, are you?" said Sam. "Isn't that place crawling with Controllers?"

"Yeah, it's a front organization for them," Cassie told her. "Like some kind of youth group or whatever."

"I thought maybe I _should _go," I continued. "I shouldn't think one meeting will hurt. Besides, Tom said Visser Three was going to be there. Which implies it's some kind of special meeting going on. We could learn a lot as to what their up to."

"No way, Jake," said Cassie sternly. "It's far too dangerous."

"They don't know who we are," I said. "We could easily morph roaches or something halfway though, and listen in on the full-member's meeting."

Cassie looked at me, her eyes dark. I knew that look. It said "I care about you, Jake. Don't do anything stupid." I gave her a "don't worry, I won't" look back. Sometimes it helps to have someone who can read the most subtle of expressions around. Other times, it was distracting. She'd already made me feel guilty once today. Now it was happening again.

"What time's the meeting?" asked Marco. He already knew that I would be going along, and was starting to make plans for the mission.

"Eight," I said. "Tom's driving me there. I thought a few of us should come along. Two of you with me as humans, a few more as gulls or flies to keep watch. Who's free tonight?"

"Yeah, we are," said Sam. "Nothing much for us to do back in the valley."

"Good, I was hoping one of you would like to come along. You haven't been to a Sharing meeting yet, have you?"

"No, the only stuff we've heard about it is what you guys have told us, and what we've read on their website."

"Cool. Well maybe you could organize one of your team to come with me in human morph. You'll probably have to do one of your partial morphs to avoid being recognized, though. The rest of you could keep watch as flies and sea gulls. You do have fly and seagull morphs, don't you?" Sam had briefed me on the morphs they'd acquired, when we'd first met them, but I was finding it difficult to remember them all.

"Philip, Ferdie and I have crows," Sam replied. "But Maggie only has an eagle and a swan. We've all got flies, though."

"That's ok, I'm sure Cassie can find a pigeon or something for Maggie." I turned round to face the rest of my own ground. "Marco? You want to join me tonight?"

"Any excuse to avoid doing my history essay," he replied.

"Good. What about you guys?" I said, facing Sam.

"I don't mind," she said. "Flawless? You want to go?"

'Flawless' is Sam and Philip's nickname for Ferdie. It's a combination of his initial name and surname. Not sure if it's truly accurate, but I didn't know the guy well enough to judge him yet.

"Absolutely," Ferdie chirped.

"Good. I'll meet the two of you outside the school then, at about five to eight. Ferdie, you'll need to wear some normal clothes. You can't go walking around looking like you've just spend the last ten years on the back of a horse."

"What about the rest of us?" asked Sam. "How many do you want as backup?"

"I want at least two people as flies to follow the three of us into the main meeting," I said. "And maybe another two to go crows or seagulls and keep an eye out for people entering the building."

"Ok," said Sam. "Philip, you can go as fly. You're the best in that morph. Maggie, you and I will go bird. You'll need to get Cassie to let you acquire a common bird morph first, though."

"No problem," said Cassie, leading Maggie over to one of the cages. "We've got a seagull with a broken wing here. He'll be perfect. You know how to acquire, right? Just touch and concentrate, and the animal will go into a trance."

"Yeah, we've acquired loads of creature," Maggie replied, putting her hand into the cage and acquiring the bird. The gull flapped and squawked noisily for a few moments, then settled down as Maggie acquired it.

"Beware of its' love of fast food," Rachel laughed. "Gulls have a thing for moldy trash and left-over fries."

"Right, so that one thing sorted," I said. "But I need someone else to go with Philip. Any takers?"

"I'll do it," said Rachel, practically leaping into the air.

"Are you sure, Rachel?" said Marco sarcastically. "We all know you don't like to volunteer for things. Maybe this is too big a step for you."

Rachel scoffed and flicked some hay at him. He dodged, falling backwards off the hay bale. I saw Sam raise an eyebrow in surprise.

"You were saying?" asked Rachel sweetly.

"Ok," I said, trying to resolve peace. "So Philip and Rachel - you're my spies. What about you three?" I asked, looking at Tobias, Ax and Cassie.

"Um, not to be rude or anything, but I'm really behind on my school work," Cassie said, biting her lip.

"That's no problem," I said, smiling at her. "We don't need everyone in on it tonight, now we've got some more members. Ax?"

"I shall do whatever Prince Jake tells me," the Andalite replied, who was happily cramming some bird seed into his mouth. Cassie walked over to him and gently removed the seed from his hand.

"Alright," I said. "You can go with Philip and Rachel. Tobias?"

He flapped down from the rafters, landing on top of one of the empty cages. An injured fox saw him and crouched back into the corner of his cage. Tobias ruffled his wings nosily.

--Um, I've got a bit of a problem back at my meadow,-- he said. --Some other hawk is trying to make his nest there, and he's trying to push me out. I don't want to be away from my tree for too long incase he gets ideas.--

I nodded understandingly. Just because Tobias lives his life as a bird and no longer had the problems of normal humans, it doesn't mean he doesn't have problems of his own.

"I guess you can't really file a lawsuit against another hawk for taking your land, right?" said Maggie kindly.

--Too right,-- Tobias replied. --So, I hope you don't mind, but I'd better be off if you guys don't need me on this. I could do with some dinner soon, too. I never got a chance to catch any lunch.--

"Sure, Tobias. Thanks for coming along," I said.

"See you later, Tobias," Rachel called, as he flapped out of the open door, and into the air.

"Ok, well I think that's all we need for tonight then," I said. "So it's me, Ferdie and Marco outside the school at five to eight. Rachel, Ax and Philip as flies. Rachel, you lead them to the main hall and keep out of sight. Sam and Maggie, you two go as birds and keep watch over the school."

"Got it," said Sam. "I'm going to get something to eat from the supermarket. Rachel, you got any more of Ferdie's money left? " she said, beginning one of her partial morphs.

Rachel dug into her purse and passed Sam a few notes. "Coming, Flawless?"

The two of them pulled on some of their new clothes over their morphing suits and headed out of the barn. "See you guys tonight," Sam said.

"I'd better get back too," I said, morphing back to falcon. "See you later, Cassie. Don't make Maggie work too hard!" I finished morphing and took to the air, soaring the late afternoon thermals back to my neighborhood.


	7. Chapter 7: The Meeting

Chapter 7

I got home and demorphed in my room, pulling some clothes on over my morphing suit.

"Jake!"

A voice from downstairs. My mom.

"Jake, I've been calling you for the last ten minutes!" she yelled from the kitchen. I quickly threw on a sweater and went down to see what she wanted.

"Sorry - I was on the phone," I said.

"Well, I hope you didn't run up a huge bill," my mom said. She was bustling around the kitchen, peeling potatoes and trying to do a thousand things at once. "What do you want for dinner? If you're going to that Sharing thing with Tom, you'll need to get something to eat soon."

"I'll just have a pizza," I said, jumping into help with the potatoes.

"Well, can you do that yourself? I'm trying to do a roast for your father and I."

I put down the potatoes and took a pizza out of the freezer, throwing it into the oven, along with a ready-made garlic bread. Nothing spectacular, I know, and not particularly healthy, but sometimes you gotta make your priorities when you're about to go spy on a an army of Yeerks.

Speaking of which, Tom came wandering into the kitchen and pulled open the freezer door.

"Did you see my pizza?" he asked. "I had a pepperoni one in here earlier."

"Oh," I said. "I think I just put it in the oven. Sorry."

"Well, maybe you could check next time, Jake?" he said, making himself a pot noodle instead. "I bought that pizza myself."

I sighed. That's how well Yeerks are able to blend in with their host's families. There was no one anyone would expect someone who got annoyed over pizza was really a mind-controlling alien slug.

I finished waiting for my pizza to cook, then took it into the living room to watch The Simpsons. At about half past seven, Tom told me to get ready to go. I grabbed my phone and my coat, and double-checked that I was wearing my morphing outfit.

"See you later, mom," Tom called, opening the front door and getting into the car.

"Have a good time," my mother replied. _Yeah. I'm sure I will_.

I got into Tom's care and casually put my feet up on the dashboard while my brother started the engine.

"Don't put your feet up like that," he said. "You're getting mud all over the interior."

See what I mean about Controllers fitting in with human society? What Yeerk would care about a bit of mud?

"I'm meeting Marco outside the school, by the way," I told Tom as we drove through town. Tom's a great driver. He's only been driving a few months, and he passed his test after like three lessons. I guess the Yeerk in his head had already known how to drive in it's former host.

"Marco's coming too?" Tom said, grinning. "Great stuff."

"Yeah, and another guy I know. How long is the meeting?"

"About two hours. But halfway through I have to go in for the full member's meeting." He said it like I should be impressed.

Tom turned into the school parking lot and did a perfect reverse park into one of the spaces. Like any teenager could park that well.

"Well then," said Tom, as we stepped out the car. "Your first Sharing meeting."

"Yeah," I said, trying to sound enthusiastic. "My first meeting."

"You're gonna love it, buddy!" Tom said happily. "There's so much you can do, so much to take part in. You really feel like you belong to something at The Sharing."

We walked up to the main entrance, and I saw Ferdie and Marco hanging about, looking unsure where to go.

"Hey, Tom - I'll catch you up in a second. Just gotta meet Marco."

"Ok, I'll see you in there," Tom replied. I walked briskly over to Marco and Ferdie. Marco was wearing a rather strange collection of a basketball vest, too-short pants and smart shoes. Ferdie had done a partial morph and was dressed immaculately in his new clothes. He looked nothing like his original self, but he still managed to possess the same air of confidence and self-esteem associated with high society.

"Hey dude," said Marco. "You've met Fred, right?"

I laughed and said hi to Ferdie, or 'Fred', as he was to be known for the evening. "Good disguise," I said. "Works well."

"Cheers," said Ferdie, his voice a little lower than usual.

"Unlike Marco, who seems to have just walked out of a jumble sale. What's with the new fashion? Rachel would have a fit if she saw you like that."

"I was running late, and didn't have time to wait for the bus, so I morphed. Then I had to grab some stuff from lost property to put on over my morphing outfit."

"You should have just got a taxi, like me," Ferdie said. "I've been at the shopping center with Sam, and came straight from there."

"Oh right," I said. "So, are Sam and the others around here?" I quickly went through in my mind as to who was morphing what tonight.

"Yeah, Sam and Maggie are birds. I saw them around a moment ago."

Just then, a big black crow and a seagull came flapping down from a nearby tree and landed in front of us. The seagull, Maggie, immediately started pecking at an empty packet of potato chips.

--Hey, Jake,-- said Sam, the crow. --You ready for this?--

"As ready as I'll ever be," I replied. "Where are Philip, Ax and Rachel?"

--They're already inside,-- she replied. --Rachel showed them to the main hall, where the meeting is held.--

"Cool," I said, lowering my voice. "Well, I'll see you guys later. We'll be sneaking into the full member's club at about nine, and we should be out by ten. We'll let you know if we need anything."

"This had best not turn into one of those suicide attempts we seem to love so much," said Marco. "I'm really getting sick of them."

"Don't worry," said Ferdie brightly. "This is just going to be a nice, simple recce mission. You know, to find out a bit of information."

We left the girls and walked up the steps into the school and made our way into the main hall. The place was filled with soft couches, a make-shift bar selling candy and soft drinks, ping-pong tables, and a DJ booth. The place was field with kids, mostly from our school. I waved to a guy I recognized from my English class, hoping he wasn't already a Controller.

"Jake!" I heard Tom's voice behind me. He came walking up to us, holding a can of soda. "I was wondering where you'd gotten to. Hey, Marco. How's it going?"

"Hey Tom," said Marco. "Oh, this is Fred, by the way."

"Hi, Fred, great of you to join us," said Tom brightly. "You'll love the it here. So, anyone up for a game of pool?"

"Yeah, why not?" I said, following him over to the poll tables. Marco and Ferdie walked behind me nervously, scanning the room for people we knew to be Controllers.

"So, this is a Sharing meeting?" I asked casually, picking up a cue and throwing one to Marco. Ferdie sided with Tom.

"Yeah, this is what most of the normal meetings are like, you know? We just hang, really. Play a few video games, meet new people, that sort of thing. Sometimes we stuff like hold beach parties or go to a baseball match or whatever. Although tonight, the founder, Mr. Visser, should be popping along later."

"So, anyone can join?" Ferdie asked, chalking up his cue. "There's no limitations or restrictions or anything?"

"None," said Tom, taking the first shot. "It's open to all ages, all races, all types of people. The Sharing doesn't discriminate. In fact, it's one of our aims to reduce those sorts of attitudes. Just the other day, we had some guy from the grade above me join who'd had this really messed up life. His dad was on drugs , he was getting really bad grades, and he had like, no friends. But Mr. Chapman told him about us. He came along, and we helped him totally transform his life. Now, he's a full member and a mentor to some of the younger kids who come from that sort of background."

I nodded. "Sounds good," I said, trying not to think of the fact that the guy Tom had been talking about was now a Controller. He reminded me of Tobias's situation before he'd become an Animorph. Would Tobias have ended up joining The Sharing if it wasn't for Elfangor?

"It's a great society to be a part of," Tom continued. "It's the best thing I've ever done."

I nodded and took a shot. Potted one of Tom and Ferdie's yellow balls.

"Busted!" my brother laughed. "Thanks for helping us out!"

"Yeah, good one, Jake," Ferdie grinned, blending in naturally. "That's two goes for me!" He lined up his cue like a professional, took the shot and potted two yellows.

"That's the way to do it," he smirked, taking another go. He missed, and Marco had his go.

"Hey, if you become a member, maybe you could teach some of the other kids," Tom told Ferdie. "Another aim of The Sharing is to help people discover their hidden talents."

"Yeah, maybe," said Ferdie casually.

Just then, Rachel's thought speak entered my head.

--Hey, guys, how are you doing down there?-- she asked, knowing we couldn't reply as we weren't in morph. --Scratch your head if you can hear me.--

I scratched my head, looking around surreptitiously for the source of the thought-speak.

--Philip, Ax and I are on the ceiling above you,-- Rachel told us. --Don't look up.--

--Actually,-- said Philip, after a moment, --I think Ax has flown down to assess the ice-cream situation.--

--Oh, not again!-- Rachel said. --Ax! You have got to get a grip on the fly's instincts! Leave the deserts alone. Someone's gonna squash you if you're not careful.--

--Sorry, Rachel,-- said Ax. --This creature's love of sweet substances is very difficult to resist.--

--Anyway, guys, we're going to go and listen in on Chapman for a bit,-- Rachel continued. --We might have to go and demorph soon. If we wait until after the Yeerk meeting, it have be too late.--

I made a small 'ok' sign with my fingers, hoping they'd be able to see and Tom wouldn't.

--Cool, see you later then,-- Rachel said. I turned round and saw a couple of big black flies buzz over to the other side of the room.

We spent the next half hour or so listening to music, playing table tennis and chatting to some of the guys from school. Hopefully Tom would assume that we were just chilling, and not realize that we were infiltrating the Yeerk organization right under their noses. I hoped that we would be quite safe. The Yeerks thought we were Andalites, and would probably expect this to be the last place we'd turn up.

"Guys, I have to go to the full member's meeting in a few minutes," Tom said. "So you'll have to find something to do yourselves for the next hour or so. I'll see you out here at ten."

"Ok, sure," I replied, hoping Rachel and the others knew about the plans. "We'll just hang about here."

"Make sure you chat to some of the full members," Tom said. "There'll be a few popping in and out of our meeting, and they can tell you loads more about the club than I can."

"Yeah, I guess we can do that," I said, as Tom wandered off to talk to one of the other Controllers. I turned to Marco and Ferdie, lowering my voice.

"Right, we'd better go into the bathroom and morph flies," I said. "It looks like the full member's meeting is being held in the cafeteria. We can meet up with Rachel and the others and follow them in there."

"This is where a 'recce' mission turns into a suicide mission," Marco muttered dryly, looking at Ferdie.


	8. Chapter 8: They Can't!

Chapter 8

The three of us made our way into the men's room, making sure that there was no one else in the room.

"You've done a fly morph before, right?" I asked Ferdie, who was demorphing back to his original self.

"Only spent most of a Concorde journey as one," he replied, smiling. "Yes. I've done a fly morph before. And a wasp."

"Good. Well, we'd better get going," I said, heading into one of the stalls and locking the door, just in case someone walked in. "The meeting will be starting soon. I suggest we take off our normal clothes and tuck them against the wall or something. Hopefully no one will see them and get suspicious."

I slipped off my clothes, standing shivering in my tight cycling shorts and tee-shirt for a few moments, as I focused on the image of the fly in my mind. Flies have never been one of my preferred creatures; when I first started morphing, I kind of imagined us morphing tigers and lions all the time. You know, cool animals. And we do, a lot of the time. But we also have to use some of our uglier morphs too. Flies may not be all that good in a fight, but they sure are the ultimate spies. Tiny and virtually unnoticeable. I shuddered, hoping the morph would be a fast one.

"This is so gross," I heard Marco hiss from the stall next to me. "And I mean really gross. I'm sure glad there isn't a mirror in here."

"Well, at least you're not bragging about how cute you are," I said, as my body began to shrink. Tiny, coarse black hairs began to grow all over my body. A pair of wiggly antennae suddenly sprouted out of my forehead.

"You brag about your cuteness?" laughed Ferdie from the end stall. "You vain little boy!"

--Is cuteness frowned upon among humans?-- asked Ax.

"Oh, like you're not vain, Flawless?" retorted Marco, ignoring Ax and putting on a phony English accent. "That's what Sam calls you, right? Well, Lord Flawless, I've seen the way you look at yourself in the mirror. If anyone's vain, it's got to be you, m'lord."

Ferdie started to say something in response, but his words turned to gibberish as I assumed his mouth melted away into the fly's mouthparts. My own face was beginning to resemble some freakish nightmare - my skin was turning black and hard, and my eyes were bulging outwards like two huge balloons. My human eyesight blurred and disappeared for a moment, then returned in the form of an insect's compound sight. It was like watching a thousand tiny TV screens, each pointing in a very slightly direction. My ability to sense movement was amazing. I moved my foot, which was fast becoming the claws of the fly's legs. I saw the movement immediately. I saw it even before it happened. No movement could escape my vision.

At last, a third pair of legs popped out of my chest and two silky wings grew out of my back. I was a fly.

--Are you guys done?-- I asked, buzzing up to the ceiling. I could just make out Marco finishing off his morph in the stall next to me. Ferdie, already fully fly, flew up to join me on the ceiling, casually doing a couple of double somersaults in the air on his way up.

--Being a fly is wicked,-- he exclaimed. --Talk about the mother of aviation! They may be ugly little things to turn in to, but they sure are fun to be!--

--Yeah, well, we don't have all night to spend buzzing around like lunatics,-- I said. --Let's get going - we have to meet Rachel and the others on the way.--

We flew back the way we'd come, keeping close to the ceiling and the wall out of sight. We reached the main room, and I could hear Rachel's thought-speak.

--I hope the others are morphed - Chapman's about to start the meeting,-- I heard her tell Philip and Ax.

--Don't worry, Rachel,-- I called to her. --We're here. Are all the Controllers in the cafeteria?--

--Yeah - Chapman's just gone in now. Tom's already in there. Do you want us to stay out here or follow you in?--

--You can follow us in if you like,-- I said. --I don't think there's much going on out here, and we'll need all the ears we have so we don't miss anything.--

We flew out of the hall, along a short corridor and into the canteen. I could make out the full members - Controllers - sitting around at a large, round table below me. Chapman kept scratching his balding head.

--Ok, try to move around as little as possible,-- I told everyone. --We don't want to attract any attention.--

--Uh oh,-- said Marco suddenly. --Anyone recognize the guy coming in though the back door?--

A tall, dark haired man of around forty walked into the cafeteria. He was wearing a dark suit and tie, and carried a black leather briefcase. He possessed the absolute authority of a military general. It was Visser Three, in his human morph.

"Visser," said Chapman, getting up and extending his hand. If I were human, I'd have been able to make out tiny beads of sweat on his forehead.

Visser Three nodded curtly and sat down at the table without shaking Chapman's hand. He stared at his underlings like the Demon Headmaster for a second, and poured himself a glass of water from the jug on the table.

--That's Visser three?-- asked Ferdie. The four new Animorphs had met the guy only once, down at the Yeerk pool, and hadn't seen his human morph before.

--Yes, Ferdinand, that is him,-- Ax said. --The abomination who killed my brother.--

--The dude leading the Yeerk invasion of Earth,-- added Rachel. --The most evil guy on the planet.--

Visser Three began to speak in a low, oily voice.

"I hear you are making progress with the latest plans?" he said.

"Yes, sir," replied a young male Controller. "Stage one and two are complete, and were more than successful. We are now well into stage three."

"That is good to hear," said the Visser icily. I didn't doubt the what the Controller was saying was true, but even if things weren't going to plan, you didn't tell that to Visser Three. Better to lie than to admit fault and get your head chopped off. Literally.

"We have taken over fifty new hosts in the last forty-eight hours," the Controller continued. "The chemical is leading the humans straight to our department at the hospital, and the antidote to the chemical is working perfectly."

"Excellent. And how many potential hosts could we have in the next week or so?"

"The pipelines the chemical runs through reaches a district of around a thousand human dwellings," the man continued. "Therefore, the water supply, and hence the chemical, should reach approximately five thousand humans. Not all of these humans will show the effects of the chemical, or seek medical help, but we predict that at least twenty percent of the humans will be admitted to hospital. We think around half of these people will be referred to our department."

"So, that would make around five hundred new hosts in the next week. That is pleasing to hear."

"Thank you, sir," said the man. "If this plan can be carried out successfully, we plan to make the consultant of another department in another hospital one of us. We are also thinking about taking control of another plant and adding the chemical to another pipe system."

The Controllers moved onto discussing an entrance to the Yeerk pool - one we already knew about and so was of little interest for us. We left the Controllers to their meeting and flew out into the corridor and into the men's room, where the six of us began to demorph. Rachel made some comment about certain unpleasent male aromas.

--Whoa,-- said Ferdie as we checked out the room to make sure there was no one about. --Five hundred new hosts?--

--They're adding something to our water system?-- exclaimed Rachel a moment later. --They can't do that!--

--I'm afraid that is not quite true, Rachel. The Yeerks can indeed do that if they so wish.-- Ax. Of course.

---The Yeerks can do anything, Rachel,-- I said heavily, watching as my spidery legs became thicker and muscular.

--That's what that epidemic was about at the hospital,-- Philip said. --The Yeerks are adding some kind of mild poison to our water supply. People are getting ill from it, and are admitted to hospital.--

--The Yeerks take over the pharmacology lab or something,-- I continued. --Patients are referred there. They go in and are given a drug as a remedy or something, and are given the bonus treatment of a Yeerk in their heads.--

--What are we going to do about it?-- Ferdie asked. His thought-speak was faint. I guessed he was about to cross the line back to normal speech.

I paused whilst my mouthparts became fully human. "I think we should raise that question with the others," I said, stepping into my clothes and out of the stall. Marco was already fully demorphed. Ferdie was doing some kind of partial morph again, adjusting his features ever so slightly so as not be recognizable as one of the fugitives. Rachel, Ax and Philip were in the process of morphing back to flies, since they didn't have any clothes with them. And Ax couldn't exactly go walking around a Sharing meeting in his Andalite form.

"We'd better go meet Tom. We'll arrange a meeting back at Cassie's barn for sometime tomorrow," I said. "It's a Saturday, so no school. We'll see if everyone's free in the afternoon. Rachel and Marco, I'll give you guys a call. Philip, I'll fly over to the Hork-Bajir valley in the morning and chat you and the others."

--Yeah, we'd better be off too,-- said Rachel. --My mom is going to screw if I get back too late. Talk to you all tomorrow then,-- she said, finishing her morph and taking to the air.

"Could you let Sam and Maggie know what's going on?" I asked. "I'll send Ax down to the valley tomorrow, but if you could just let them know we're done here."

--Sure,-- she said. Ax and Philip followed her and they left the school. I assumed they would demorph on the school roof or something, and go the rest of the way as raptors.

The three of us remaining left the bathroom and made our way back into the main hall. The Controllers were just leaving the cafeteria, their meeting having ended. I saw Tom over the other side of the room, talking to one of them. He made his excuses and came over to us when he saw me.

"Hey dude. Have fun while I was away?" he asked, putting on the older-brother act and slapping my back.

"Yeah, we just chilled, really," I said.

"Did you get to chat to any of the full members?"

"Sort of," I said vaguely. "Talked to some guy about the beach party. I think he was a full member."

"Good stuff," he said, smiling. "You can really learn a lot from some of the seniors. Come to think of it, Mr. Visser is making his way around, talking to some of the new guys, like you. Why don't you go up and talk to him? I'm sure he'll love that."

Marco caught my eye behind Tom's back. I raised my eyebrow ever so slightly in response.

"Uh, we really ought to be going," I said. "Gotta try and do some homework before bed. Do you mind if we give Marco and Fred a lift home? You can just drop Fred off at ours. He lives pretty close by."

"Yeah, whatever," Tom replied, obviously disappointed that we weren't bothered about meeting his beloved war-lord.

We hopped into the car and Tom took Marco back to his dad's apartment on the other side of town. Marco had a pretty screwed up life for a couple of years. His mom died and his dad sort of went into a depression. They moved out of their old house and into some shabby flat downtown, and it wasn't until a few months ago that his dad finally got back on track and they were able to move to a nicer place. Around that time, we also found out that Marco's mom was actually the host to Visser One, one of the highest ranking Controllers in the Yeerk military. That gave Marco, who'd before been reluctant to get involved with the whole Animorphs thing, a real reason to fight the Yeerks.

Tom pulled up into the drive and we let Ferdie out. He would have to leave his clothes at Cassie's so he could morph and fly back to the valley. I still had no idea how we were meant to get all their stuff down there.

"So what did you think of it?" my brother asked, as we entered the house.

"Yeah," I said, noncommittally. "It was certainly…educational."

"Cool. So you think you'll come again next week?"

I sighed. There was obviously no way I could show my face at the place again. "Look, Tom, thanks for bailing me out of baby sitting and all, and I had a really great time tonight, but I just don't think The Sharing is my kind of thing."

A brief look of triumph flashed across Tom's face for a second, but was immediately replaced by one of defeat. I knew what had happened. The real Tom - my brother, not the Yeerk in his head - had managed to regain control for a split second before his Yeerk took over again. I shivered. It made me sick to think of my brother as a slave in the back of his mind to an alien parasite.

"Sure," he said, heading up to his room. "Whatever. But you're missing out, Jake. I mean it. There's so much more for you out there."

I nodded soberly and pulled my cell phone out of my pocket, texting Cassie the plans for tomorrow, then headed up to my room for an early night. I could tell I was going to have a long day tomorrow.


	9. Chapter 9: HorkBajir

Chapter 9

The next morning, I got up extra early and gave Rachel, Cassie and Marco a call to confirm the meeting that afternoon. Everyone was fine with it, although Marco grumbled at me for about ten minutes for waking him up, before I could get a word in edgeways. I would fly out to Tobias's and Ax's meadow later on, and down to the Hork-Bajir valley later. In the meantime, I spent some of the morning catching on forgotten homework, trying to feel like a normal kid for an hour or so, but finding it virtually impossible to concentrate on algebra and physics equations. I laughed quietly to myself at the irony that I, the unofficial leader of Earth's only resistance against an alien invasion, was being made to do algebra.

My mind wandering in all directions, I finally gave up on finishing my work and went down to the kitchen to grab something to eat. As I crossed the dining room, I heard Tom's voice on the phone.

"Yes, I believe so," he was saying. "Why don't you give the others a call? I'm sure they can come up with something."

He lowered his voice as I entered the room, turning away from me. Obviously some Yeerk business, requiring everyone to be up at the crack of dawn. It was funny how the two of us had both learned to use the phone with a great deal of caution nowadays, although for very different reasons. I gave him a friendly slap on the back and rolled my eyes, pretending I thought he was talking to some girl.

"Can you tell mom that I'm going round to Cassie's in a minute?" I asked him as he hung up. "Probably won't be back until the evening."

"Whatever," he said. "Although I don't see why I should be your messenger boy. I've got enough on my plate to deal with."

"Like your new girlfriend?" I teased.

"Yeah," he replied, barely listening. Normally, I would have expected him to tease me about my crush on Cassie, and would have already developed a witty comeback. But this was the Yeerk talking, not my brother. He had other things on his mind.

I gulped down some cereal then ran upstairs to change into my morphing suit. It was still pretty early, but I didn't want to stay in the house with Tom around. Besides, I needed some air to clear my mind. I opened the window and morphed to peregrine falcon, soaring off into the early morning air.

I rode the thermals for an hour or so, lazily circling the neighborhood a couple of times for no particular reason, then made my way down to the Hork-Bajir valley to meet up with Sam and her team. It was the first time, I realized, that I would be alone with them, without Marco or any of our gang. This made me a little uncomfortable. The four of them had only arrived in the States a couple of days ago, and we still hadn't much of a chance to get to know them. Deep down, I was still a little apprehensive about letting them into our little resistance. But I knew there was no way they were Controllers. I knew they were capable of putting up a fight. I knew they could strategize and formulate plans. Sam and I seemed to be getting along ok, she taking charge of her team, me taking overall control. But they were still virtual strangers. We had not worked together on a proper mission. And I had no idea how they were taking the whole situation, dealing with suddenly being forced into the middle of the war, being forced to take orders from some unknown guy, and leaving behind their friends and family, and everything they'd ever known.

Eventually, I began to recognize signs that I was coming to the valley. I drifted over for a few minutes, letting my mind go loose, letting any preconceptions of an empty valley be released from my mind. See, the valley where the others live was actually created by an all-powerful being called the Ellimist, in order to hide a small colony of free Hork-Bajir from both humans and Controllers. There's some kind of magic-like trickery cast over the valley, which makes the place almost impossible to find. Your eyes - whether human or animal - just seem to slide away from the site without you even realizing it. And if you fly over, consciously looking for some kind of sign to the valley, you'll never find it. We've learned that the best thing to do is to just let your mind go blank, and the valley will appear to you.

Eventually, I spotted some of the vast greenish-brown lizards crawling among the trees. Hork-Bajir are arboreal; they live in the trees and are fantastic climbers. My eyes could make out the way their long, tough blades that covered their body were used to strip bark from the trees, or to help them climb to the upper branches. They are simple, peaceful creatures, and this tiny population was all that represented the free individuals of a race taken over by the Yeerks.

"Maggie," I heard a girl's voice below me. "We need to try and get this even! Otherwise the whole thing's going to collapse."

I trained my laser-like eyes down into the foliage and saw that Sam was halfway up one of the trees, giving directions to Maggie. The two of them, and a handful of Hork-Bajir, were busily trying to erect some kind of wooden platform in the upper branches. Long vines, acting as ropes, had been assembled into pulleys, which were used to hoist logs and planks up into the branches.

I soared down further, watching them for a bit before I let them know of my presence. The two brothers were working on constructing some kind of well or device to transport water. Philip was directing another group of Hork-Bajir, giving out clear, concise orders which even the simple-minded Hork-Bajir could understand. I recognized one of the group as Jara Hamee, one of the original hosts we'd met not too long ago. He and his mate, Ket Halpak, seemed to be having a fine time, obviously excited at the prospect of an intelligent human coming to live with them and respect their way of life. I smiled inwardly to myself. Philip looked like he would make a fine leader. Like Sam, he had that rare ability to get other people to do what needed to be done, whilst keeping them happy and on task. Ferdie had told me he'd been an officer in the British Army for a couple of months, before they were taken by the Skrit-Na and told about the Yeerks. I wondered for a moment why he, and not Sam, had commanded their little group on their way over here.

"Jake?" I heard Toby Hamee's voice below me. "Is that you?"

Toby is the child of Jara Hamee and Ket Halpak. She is considered to be a seer: an individual who is superior in intelligence and possessed a wider vocabulary compared to the rest of her race. As a result, she acts as their leader, helping them build a new colony, keeping the tribe away from the Yeerks, and occasionally giving us a helping hand if we need it.

I sailed down towards the group and landed on the grass, beginning my demorph.

--Hey, Toby,-- I said. --How's it going? Sam's not giving you too much grief, I hope?--

"Hey!" Sam laughed amicably, climbing down a make-shift ladder and coming over to greet me. "I resent that! Are the rest of your guys here?"

"No, only me," I replied.

"Sam and Philip have been showing some of us how to build more appropriate shelter," said Toby. "We now have four tree-platforms, and we are developing a mechanism to bring clean water from the stream up here, so that it is always on hand."

--That's great,-- I said. --Looks like things are really taking off down here.--

Just then, Philip and Ferdie cam walking over to us. Like Sam and Maggie, they were wearing only their morphing outfits, having yet to work out a way to get their clothes down here. The two guys were carrying a coil of vine over their shoulders, Ferdie swinging his around his head like a cowboy. They were followed by Jara and Ket. The two Hork-Bajir's faces lit up when they saw me.

"Jake!" Jara cried. "How is Jake? Jara and Ket making tree-shelter for Sam!"

"That's great, Jara," I said, as my beak became a normal, human mouth. "I see she's got you all working hard!"

"Jara and Ket like working for Sam," Ket said, her huge leathery mouth breaking into a grin. "Jara and Ket say 'Jara and Ket do whatever Sam and Philip says! Philip knows all to know about forest!'"

I smiled. Hork-Bajir may not have the linguistic skills of Shakespeare, but they sure like working together in a team.

I completed the demorph and turned to Sam.

"We're meeting up at Cassie's at about two o clock," I told her. "Gonna try and work out a plan against this new plan the Yeerks have come up with."

Sam nodded. "Sure."

"We'd really appreciate the input from you guys," I added. This would be our first proper mission together, and I needed for us to all work together without any problems.

"Thanks," she replied, although of course she was expecting to raise her own ideas anyway.

I shuffled uncomfortably, unable to think what to say next. "Well, I'd-"

Sam cut me off. "Look, Jake, we really appreciate what you're doing for us," she blurted out.

I looked at her. "How do you mean?"

She shrugged, running a hand nervously through her dark hair. "I know it can't be easy for you, having to work the four of us into the equation. You look like you're all pretty close knit, you've got your own ways of working, you know a whole load of stuff about the Yeerks that we don't. I suppose it must be quite hard for you, having to work us into your plans now." She paused, not quite meeting my eye. "Maybe you find it difficult to trust us?"

I sat down on a rock, my eyes flicking from one of them to another. Toby was watching me with interest.

"Well," I started, "I'm not gonna lie and try and make out that the six of you have just accepted this situation without condition. We had our fair share of flying opinions, that night after we met you at the Yeerk pool."

I forced a smile, remembering Ax's skepticism, Marco's distrust, and Cassie's attempts to restore order.

"None of us knew what to think, really," I continued. "I mean, we'd heard about you - or at least we'd heard about a bunch of morph-capable humans on the run from Visser Five - but we never thought about actually meeting you. Not idea what we'd do if that day ever dawned. So, the other day, when you came in morphing Andalites? I thought you were some kind of Yeerk trap. A load of Vissers had finally got their hands on some Andalite hosts. It took us a while to realize who you were, and that you were on our side."

"I don't think anyone really knew what was going on that night," said Maggie, sitting on the rock beside me. "I guess everyone's emotions were running wild. You guys must have had this plan you were sticking to, and suddenly we show up and tear it all apart."

I nodded, agreeing. "Marco yelled at me for like, the whole of that evening," I said. "He didn't want to trust you, and he couldn't accept that you were part of us now."

"I always got the feeling Marco felt rather cold towards us," said Philip. "Whether it was because he didn't trust us, or whether he was just like that, I didn't know."

"But you know, we're all for this," Sam went on. "We've had to come through this together, too. We were thrust into this war, the five of us didn't even know each other, expect for Ferdie and Philip. And we've had to accept that we'll never see our families or our homes again. "

"That's what's been bothering Tobias and Ax," I said. "Tobias has had to come to terms with his situation, and that he'll never be able to go back to his normal life again. And Ax, well, he's millions of light years from home. God only knows what it feels like for him."

"Maybe we should have a chat with them," Maggie suggested. "Get to know them both a little better. Clear the air."

"I think that's a good idea," I said.

There was a moment's silence, which was broken by Sam.

"Look, if you think we can't handle the whole life-or-death mission thing-" she started. I put out my hand to stop her, knowing already what she was going to say.

"I don't think that at all," I said quietly. "The six of us all know what happened to Asha. I mean, we've had a few close calls in the last few months, but you're the only ones who have actually lost a team member along the way. And Philip - you've been in the army, haven't you? You've seen death. So, if anything, I'd say you should be the ones telling us that we can't handle it."

Sam nodded, her eyes meeting mine. The four of them were quiet. Ferdie's eyes were glazed over, like he was reliving his last few weeks.

"Anyway," I said, standing up and brushing the dirt off my shorts. "I just come down to let you know about the meeting later on. But I think it's good we had this talk. I really hope we can work together on this."

"I'm sure we will," Sam said. "We've got two really great teams. _One _really great team," she emphasized.

I smiled and morphed back to falcon, and for a while,feeling much more at ease with myself. I flapped my wings and took off into the air, the four new Animorphs below me watching me leave.


	10. Chapter 10: Could I Do It?

Chapter 10

I reached the house, and flew in through the still-open window into my bedroom. I saw that my mom had come and taken my laundry basket. As if I'd need clean underwear to fight the Yeerks. I smiled inwardly and focused my mind on my human body, beginning to demorph, suddenly wishing I'd remembered to lock my bedroom door. I could hear Tom moving about downstairs, and my parents both out in the garden. They had no reason to come up to my room. I relaxed a little, letting the changes come. This time, the first thing to change was my face. My eyes became smaller and hazel colored, my vision blurring as I lost the amazing vision of the raptor. My razor-like hooked beak, ideal for ripping and tearing, became the soft human lips of my human mouth. I felt an itching in my gums as teeth emerged. Light brown hair grew out of my head, and round ears popped out the side of my face. My neck became longer and thinner, and my shoulders became more obvious. My wings shortened and the joints switched direction as they became arms and hands. My yellowy feet and sharp, powerful talons dissolved into pink little toes. At this point, I was basically a bird-sized boy, covered entirely in light gray and bluish feathers. Not my ugliest looking demorph, but still a freaky thing to watch. I concentrated harder on my own self, willing the changes to speed up. Eventually, I was fully human. I threw on a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt on over my morphing suit, and went into the bathroom to brush my hair. Finally, I grabbed my coat and, on second thoughts, my homework bag, and cycled round to Cassie's. It wasn't quite two o clock, but I felt like going over some stuff with her before the others arrived. Something had begun to play on my mind as I'd been flying over my neighborhood, and Cassie was the best person when it came to understanding feelings.

Cassie's mom was outside the barn, feeding some of the goats as I cycled up the dirt track to the farm. I waved to her and smiled at one of the young lambs that was busily sniffing in my pockets.

"Hey, Jake," she said. "You looking for Cassie?"

"Yeah, is she around?" I asked.

"I think she's just up at the house. I'll go let her know you're here."

"Thanks, I'll just wait in the barn, shall I?"

"Yeah, don't get too close to the animals though," she warned. "Some of them are pretty wild and I'm sure you don't want to lose any fingers!"

I nodded and made my way over to the big red barn, leaving my bike standing against the side of it. The whole place was as noisy as usual with the various quacks, squawks and snorts of the various animals. I looked around at some of the birds, thinking how I could become any of them if I want to. There was a new raptor in, I noticed. A big brown hawk which looked just like Philip's buzzard morph, greedily eying a rabbit in a cage across the room.

"Jake, hi! I didn't realize you were coming early." I turned round to see Cassie making her way into the barn. She was covered in dried mud and stunk of horses, but that didn't stop me from thinking how attractive she was.

"Uh, I decided to pop over early," I told her. "I flew down to the Hork-Bajir valley earlier to tell Sam and the others about the meeting later. Ended up having a bit of a heart to heart with them."

"Yeah?" she asked, going over to the medicine cupboard and grabbing a little tub of pills.

"Just to see how they are getting on with stuff." I felt a little bad, talking about what we'd discussed, when they knew that only I had been present. But I needed to get something off my chest, and Cassie wasn't exactly going to be spreading my thoughts around the rest of the group.

"How are they?" She walked over to a savage looking fox, and calmly her hand down the back on it's throat, making it swallow a pill. The fox sat perfectly still, as if showing to the other animals how it should behave. I swallowed, unable to understand how the girl could cope with school, Animorphs stuff, and help her dad run the clinic and not have a breakdown.

"Yeah, they seem to be getting along really well," I replied, staring at the fox. "Toby and the other Hork-Bajir seem really happy to have them there. They've started building this really cool tree-house system, and they've got a well, and-"

Cassie looked at me, cutting me off. She knew I hadn't come down here early to talk about the valley.

"Something Sam said, it really made me think," I said at last.

"What sort of something?"

"I don't know if I could cope with losing one of us," I admitted.

Cassie removed her arm from the fox's throat, and came over to me.

"What makes you say that?" she asked gently.

"Cassie, they've all lost a team member already," I said. "That girl Asha died right before they'd barely started their mission."

"You're worried how you'd take it if the same happened to one of us?"

"Yeah, but not just that. It's making me think, aren't we the inexperienced ones here? I mean, we've been at this longer than they have, and we've got way more experience, but so far…"

I trailed off, trying not to look her in the eye.

"Plus, this will sound really stupid, but if I'm like, meant to be the leader here, I shouldn't even be thinking this way. But I am. And I can't stop thinking about it, and what I'd do if I was faced with that event. I should be thinking rationally about it, if anything, but right now I guess I'm feeling like a bit of a fool, like they don't think I can really handle this. Does that make any sense to you?"

Cassie put her arm round me and turned my face to look at her.

"Of course it makes sense," she said. "But you don't have to have already dealt with something to know how to fight it. You're scared about this whole thing - we all are. And yeah, it's a subject we're gonna have to deal with, whether it happens or not." She smiled. "Just because you're the leader, doesn't mean you can't have feelings too. I know you're always doing the right thing for everyone here, even if you don't. I think everyone else knows that too, including the new guys. We all have respect for you here. They're no question about that."

I nodded. "I guess. Thanks, Cassie. I really needed to talk to someone about that."

She smiled again and stood up. "You know you can always talk to me, about anything," she said seriously. "Now, you couldn't give me a hand with this pigeon, could you?"

I stood up and helped her fix the bird's bandage, feeling much better about things.

Cassie was right. I shouldn't start feeling like a failure just because I hadn't had to deal with one of us dying. I made those kinds of decisions all the time, whenever we went into battle. I guess if we all came out alive every time, I had to be doing something right.

A few minutes later, I heard a stomping outside, and Marco came trudging into the barn, covered head to toe in mud.

"Cassie!" he exclaimed. "You really need to sort out your farm's irrigation system! I just stepped in what I thought was a little puddle, and it turned out to be the freaking Pacific!" He sat down on a hay bale and took off a filthy trainer, banging it against the floor to get some of the mud off.

"Geez, Marco, I know you're an idiot for falling in a bog, but could you please not involve the rest of us?" I asked, shielding my face from the oncoming mud-storm.

"Hey, if I get wet, everyone else gets wet," he said, giving me a shove. I pushed him away and moved to the other side of the hay bale, rolling my eyes.

"Marco! You've just got dirt all over my new skirt!" a voice behind me squealed.

Rachel glided gracefully into the barn, staring at her skirt in horror.

"Oooh!" Marco teased. "The mighty Xena is worried by a little mud! Would you like me to clean you up, oh mighty warrior?" He walked up to her, attempting to brush the dirt away with his hands.

"Get off me, you little twerp," she said, pushing him away. She laughed as he fell on his butt in a pile of manure. "Don't touch me again."

I met Cassie's eyes and we exchanged a discreet giggle.

"I'm shocked that a bit of mud has finally found a way to break through your glamorous barriers and stick to your clothes, Rachel," she laughed. Cassie and Rachel are best friends, but like Marco and I, it's difficult to see why. Cassie's the animal loving save-Mother-Earth type, and Rachel looks like she's just stepped out of the fashion pages of Vogue. They are complete opposites, but it's never seemed to have bother them in the slightest.

Rachel smirked at her friend and looked at me. "I hope this doesn't become one of those all-weekend missions," she said, still picking at her skirt. "I still have that algebra homework to do. Unless we get to go on another stomping spree. That would be good fun."

"Well, I've actually got my math book with me, if you wanted to go over it before the others arrive," I said, ignoring her last remark about the stomping. Rachel had this huge African elephant morph that she loves, and she's always looking for an excuse to step on a few cars.

"Yeah, why not," she said, coming over to join me. "Maybe Ax can give us a hand when he arrives."

Just then, a hawk flew into the barn, followed by a disturbingly handsome boy who I recognized to be the Andalite in his human morph. It's a sort of combination of mine, Marco's, Rachel's and Cassie's DNA, which he managed to combine by means some advanced sciencey-technological thing which no one on this Earth would ever understand. As a result, you can see bits of me in there, like my eyes and broad shoulders, but also hints of Rachel's fine bone structure, Cassie's dark skin and Marco's hair.

"Hello, Prince Jake," beamed Ax, doing some kind of awkward salute-style wave that was most unlike him. "Ake-kuh. Print-suh Jake."

"Hi, Ax," I said simply.

"Tobias and I have just been sampling the fine delights of a movie theater," Ax went on. "Theee-et-uh. Move-ee. Eee. That is an excellent mouth sound. Eee."

"Yeah, it's incredible," Marco said sarcastically. "Sometimes, when I'm alone in bed at night, I just lie there, saying 'eeee' over and over again."

Ax gave him a blank look. I guess he still hasn't caught up with the whole humor thing.

"Shut up, Marco," said Rachel nonchalantly. "You went to see a movie? Which one?"

--That new Tom Cruise one,-- said Tobias, taking his usual place up in the rafters. --Ax liked the picture of the spacecraft on billboards, so I thought I'd treat him and myself to a little human culture. We had to leave early, of course, to demorph and all. Oh, by the way, he's been doing that salute all the way back. One of the characters did it like once in the film, and he's been copying it ever since.--

"I wouldn't mind seeing that," I said, unaware that I was looking at Cassie as I said it. Marco gave me a pointed look.

"The technical specifications were inaccurate, however,"Ax went, practicing his little salute. "There is no way a Class 9D cruiser could out maneuver a category three-nine-four fighter craft.--

No one bothered toanswer this.

Sam and the others arrived a few minutes later, flying in as birds through the upper windows, then starting to demorph behind one of the hay bales in case Cassie's mom walked in.

--Is that homework you're doing?-- asked Ferdie in amazement, looking at my textbook. --You've got a world to save, and you're sitting here doing maths?"

"Yeah, well, not all of us get to drop out of school just because we're hooked up in an intergalactic war," I said, turning round to face him. "Can't start raising suspicion among the teachers. Even if that means keeping up with school work."

--What is type of maths is it, anyway?-- asked Philip. --I was pretty good at it at school, maybe I could give you a hand.-- I noticed the two of them used 'maths' for 'math'. Must be some British thing.

"Algebra," I answered. "The boring type."

Philip nodded - a funny movement coming from a half-hawk, half-human freak. Philip was a fast morpher - nearly as fast as Cassie - and was already half done whilst Sam and the others had barely started.

--Well, I can do that,-- he said, his beak melting away into a mouth. --Got top marks at A Level.--

I passed Philip my notebook, aware that the others were looking at me to begin the meeting.

"You may as well start," he said haughtily, finishing the demorph andbeginning to flick through my messy scrawls. "I can decipher through this whilst listening."

Show off.


	11. Chapter 11: Three Choices

Chapter 11

"Ok, we'd better get down to business," I said. "The Yeerks are predicting another five hundred new hosts in the next couple of weeks, which means we don't have time to sit around on our butts playing with time."

"Absolutely," Philip agreed. "What do we know?"

"Well," I said, pleased to here one of the new guys getting his input in so quickly. "We know from the Sharing meeting that the Yeerks are adding something to the city's water supply. This in turn is making a load of people get ill. Those people, we assume, are being admitted to hospital, and referred to a specific department."

Sam nodded. "The Yeerks are given those people a quick treatment, and then making them into Controllers."

--Didn't the Yeerks try something like this a few months ago?-- Tobias asked. --With that whole hydro-therapy thing?--

"Uh, yeah," I said. "That plan went a bit off course."

Tobias was referring to the time when we'd checked out a similar scheme of the Yeerks', and I'd been made into a Controller. Not exactly the happiest three days of my life, but three that taught me a lot.

"Well, can we maybe try a different tactic this time?" said Marco wryly. He looked at Rachel expectantly.

"Trash the place!" she said happily. "The Yeerks can't make new hosts this way if they don't have the facilities."

Sam looked at her, a funny expression on her face. "Trash the place?" she said, disbelievingly. "What, like just tear it down?"

"Don't worry," Marco said. "Rachel is always first to suggest the most insane strategies."

"Look," I said, before the two of them could get into an argument. "As I see it, we have three options. It's not just the hospital we have to deal with, but the patients, doctors and the whole chemical thing too. So, number one. We find some way to stop the chemical being added to the water. Number two, we get hold of the antidote and _add _it to the water supply. And number three, we trash the place."

"Go for number three," said Rachel and Ferdie simultaneously.

There was a moment's silence, broken by Marco.

"Well, there's a surprise," he said. "Someone who actually thinks like Rachel."

"I don't really think trashing the place is going to be very useful, Flawless" Sam said. "It's just going to draw the Yeerks' attention to us, and besides, just tearing down the infrastructure isn't going to stop them moving their facilities elsewhere."

I nodded. "Good point. We can't just go in, all guns blazing. We have to do this a little more subtly. Formulate a strategy which actually brings their plans to it's knees."

"Ok," Sam said. "So we have two other options. What does everyone else think?"

"I think we should try and go for option two," Cassie said. "Find some way to get hold of a chemical that neutralizes the effects of the chemical, and add that to the city's reservoirs."

"Same here," said Maggie. "If we can do that, the Yeerks will think that their plan isn't working and give up."

--I agree,-- said Tobias. --It might be the only way to do it without alerting to the Yeerks that we know about their plans.--

"Yeah, that's all really great and all," said Marco impatiently, "but does anyone besides me see a major flaw with that plan?"

"What?" asked Maggie.

"Look. We don't even know what the Yeerks are adding to the water, let alone come up with the right antidote or whatever for it. I know you're good with medicine and all," he said, looking at Cassie, "but I doubt even you can be sure what drug to get hold of if we don't even know which one we have to counteract."

"Marco is right," said Ax, who was now using both hands to practice his salute. "With, of course, the extra hazard that we might add something to the water supply that is potentially dangerous to humans. Rous. Danger-uss."

"Apart from the 'rous' bit, Ax is right," Sam said. "We'd need to be absolutely certain what chemical is being added to the water, and even more certain what drug we'd have to get hold of to counteract the effects."

"Not to mention actually getting hold of the antidote," Ferdie added. "We can't just go snooping around a hospital, looking for the right medicines. And we'd need huge amounts of the stuff if it's to go around the whole district."

"Ok, so how about number one?" I said. "We find a way to stop the Yeerks adding the chemical to the water in the first place."

"And how are we meant to do that?" asked Maggie.

"We'll have to find a way to find out exactly which plant the Yeerks are adding the chemical to," I said. "Then, we'll need to find a way into the facility itself, and find out where exactly the chemical is being stored, and at what point it is added to the water."

"That's where things start to become a little insane," Marco said to new guys in a stage whisper.

"It will probably be underground, out of sight of the normal workers - or at least disguised." Philip pointed out, ignoring him. "Possibly in the sewer system, just before the water is stored in the reservoir."

"Sewers?" exclaimed Marco. "Aww, man! Don't tell me we're going to have to be flushed down the toilets!"

"I shouldn't think there's any need for that," I said. "But we will need a morph that handles those environments well. Cassie? Any ideas?"

"I don't think we need any thing fancy," she said, scanning some of the cages. "Just a plain, brown rat should be ok."

"Lovely," said Ferdie dryly. "I've heard you can get some disease from sewer rats which makes you go blind."

"Well, we're morphing them, Flawless, not taking them out to dinner," Philip muttered.

"Do you have any rats in at the moment, Cassie?" I asked. "Hang on a sec, haven't you and Rachel already got a rat morph?"

"Yes, and yes," Cassie answered. "But we've only got white lab rats and they might get noticed. So for rats that are up to the job, we've got a nice big brown one in one of the other cages."

"Can't I just stick with my mouse morph?" Ferdie grumbled.

"Ferdie," I said, slightly impatiently. "We should all acquire the same things. That way, we all know each other's strengths and weaknesses, and it makes it easier for me to keep track of who has what morph."

"That's so true," added Sam. "When we first went to a zoo to acquire some morphs, Flawless just went round the whole park, acquiring anything he could touch. He hasn't even morphed half the animals he's got. I have no idea what DNA is lurking around in his bloodstream!"

"Alright?" I said, looking at him. "We all acquire a rat. Then, we need to come up with a plan as to how we're going to do this whole thing. First of all, we need to find out exactly which water system the Yeerks are adding the chemical to, and I'm not too sure how we're going to do that."

"There is a way," said Philip, slowly. "But it will take a while, and we'll need a good computer, with decent internet access. And someone who can create a strong firewall to stop the Yeerks from knowing we've hacked into their system."

Everyone looked at Ax.

"I can be of assistance there," he said, nodding at Philip.

"You can use my dad's computer," Marco added. "He's an engineer, and always has the latest models," he told the new guys.

"Ok, that's settled then," I said. "Let's acquire this rat, and get over to Marco's and get this done."


	12. Chapter 12: Is This CID?

Chapter 12

--How do you guys usually do this then?-- asked Sam. We were flying over to Marco's house in bird of prey morph, partly to save time, and partly because I wanted us all to finally morph together as a group.

--How do we do what?-- I asked.

--Make plans, go on a mission, that sort of thing.--

--Uh, I guess pretty much how you just saw it,-- I said. --We sit around in Cassie's barn, lay out our ideas, and come up with something. We've done it enough times now, so I guess we don't really bother to think about it much anymore. Why? How do you guys do it?--

--Same, I suppose. We decide what needs to be done, work out how we're going to do it, and then just go for, like a military exercise. Philip does the thinking, I do the planning, and Maggie and Ferdie put in their suggestions.--

--Kinda like us then,-- said Rachel. --Jake does the yelling, Ax does the eating, and Marco comes up with the stupid jokes.--

--Yeah, and Rachel comes up with the ways to kill ourselves,-- Marco added casually. --By the way, we're almost there.--

--Where do we demorph?-- asked Maggie. --We have a thing for roofs.--

--Oh, we have a thing for smelly alleyways, and Dumpsters,-- said Marco. --In fact, there's an extra dirty one down there, which I'm sure Jake will like.--

--It certainly looks the safest,-- I said reluctantly. --But ten birds of prey all swooping down together will look suspicious. I suggest we fly in one at a time, or better still, five of us could take that alley to the right of the apartment block.--

--Ok,-- said Sam. --Philip, Ferdie and Maggie? On me. Jake? Could you get one of your guys to come down with us to show us the way to Marco's?--

--Sure,-- I said. --Marco, you can go. I know the way up to yours. We'll meet you outside the entrance in a few minutes.--

I pulled back my wings and sailed down into the alley, checking the place was clear before I began to demorph. Soon, I was joined by Rachel, Cassie, Tobias and Ax. Tobias immediately began to morph into his human form, and Ax had to go through his Andalite body before morphing to human.

We stepped out of the alleyway, looking rather silly in just our morphing outfits. Tobias was complaining about feeling blind in his human form.

"All right?" said Ferdie, as we met up with them. "Um…who's that?"

I realized that the four new Animorphs were all staring, confused, at Tobias. It suddenly occurred to me that this was the first time they'd seen him in his human form. Tobias cocked his head - a very hawk-like movement.

"Oh! Don't worry," I said. "It's just Tobias. You did know he was a guy, right?" I said hastily.

"Um," said Sam uncertainly. "Sorry, Tobias, we knew you had been trapped, but that you could still morph, so I guess we should have expected to see you in your human body."

"That's ok," said Tobias, his face totally blank. "I don't really spend too much time in this body."

Sam nodded, and we look the elevator up to Marco's apartment.

"My dad might be around, but just act friendly, he'll be ok," he said, opening the door. Marco's dad was in the living room, trying to program the video recorder.

"Hey, dad," said Marco casually. "I, er, got some friends round." He indicated to the big group of us.

"Hey, guys," said Marco's dad, looking at ten of us in bewilderment. "Marco never said he was having a party! You didn't want to let your old man know?" he laughed.

Marco gave him a friendly slap on the back. "Just have to go over some group project for school," he said. "You don't mind if we use the computer, do you?"

"Go ahead," he said, throwing down the video instruction manual. "If you guys want anything to eat or drink, there's some cookies and shakes in the kitchen. Try not to finish everything off. I'm just popping out to the mall. Be back a bit later. Hey, No," he said, as he passed Ax.

"Yes," Ax replied. Marco's dad looked at him, puzzled for a second, then grabbed his coat and left.

"Hey, no, yes? What was that about?" asked Sam.

"Oh, the last time I left Ax alone with my dad, I told him to say nothing except the words 'yes' and 'no'. He took it to heart," Marco replied, leading us into the study. It was pretty cramped in there, with all ten of us. I sat down on the desk beside the monitor. Philip stood behind Marco as he took the main chair. Rachel went and helped herself to some of the cookies in the kitchen.

"Right, what do you need?" asked Marco, switching on the computer.

"First, Ax will need to create a program or some kind of code or whatever to stop anyone tracing the computer's IP address," said Philip. "We're going to be checking out the Yeerk's data, and we don't want them to know that we've been snooping around."

Marco stood up and let Ax take the seat.

"You pronounce data 'day-tah' he said. "Do you all say that in England?"

"I'm not English, I'm Scottish," said Maggie hotly. But yeah, we say it 'day-tah'.

"English, Scottish…all the same to me," said Marco.

"It's so not!" Maggie protested. "How about if we started calling you guys Canadian or Australian?"

"I am Canadese," said Ax, unnecessarily.

"Then I will fly to Buckingham Palace and personally demand to your Queen that she alter the dictionaries," Marco remarked, ignoring Ax's last comment.

Maggie looked at him blankly for a second. "We have a better accent," she said simply.

"Guys, can we try and keep on track here?" I said, as Ax tapped away on the computer, muttering stuff about how slow and primitive it was. "We've got a lot to get through. Philip, what do you need us to do?"

"Have you got a printer?" he asked. "And some pens and highlighters as well, plus somewhere we can pin some stuff up on a wall."

"Yeah, we have all that stuff," Marco replied, rummaging through a drawer. "You can use that notice board by the window. It's just a load of junk on it."

Just then, Rachel came into the study, carrying a jar of cookies.

"I really shouldn't be eating these," she said, "as it ruins my figure. But these are so tasty. Chocolate chip!" She put the jar on the desk, and Sam reached over to grab one.

"Mmm," she said. "God, it's been ages since I've had some chocolate! Marco, your dad is a great bloke."

"My dad is a what?" Marco asked suspiciously.

"She means a nice guy," translated Philip.

"I have secured this primitive machine," said Ax stonily, getting up from the seat and letting Philip sit down. "Tive. Ive."

"Uh oh," said Tobias, watching Ax with interest. "You'd better hide those cookies, Rachel, and quickly!"

"Oh!" Rachel yelped, moving towards the jar.

But Ax was too fast for her. He saw the jar, and his eyes lit up with unrestrained excitement.

"Cookies!" he gasped, stuffing his hand into the jar and cramming three at a time into his mouth. "Oh! Oh! Chocolate! Choc-lut! Cook-eeeesh!"

"At least swallow your food before you talk," sniffed Marco, dodging the crumbs that were spraying from Ax's mouth.

"What is he doing?" asked Maggie, looking at Ax in shock. "Does he do that around all food, or just biscuits?"

"He does it around all food," I sighed. "Andalites don't have mouths, and no taste buds, so Ax gets a bit difficult to control when he's in his human morph and around food. Just don't let him _near _a cinnamon bun."

"Bun-zuh!" squealed Ax in delight.

"Right, well," said Philip, turning away from the rumpus. "The first thing we need is to pull up a map of the city." He opened the Internet Explorer, and quickly located a decent online map.

"Did you want to print that out?" I asked.

"Not yet," he said, tapping away. "Just need to do a little something first. "Might need Ax again to bypass the system…nope…I think we're ok."

I leant over the chair, peering at the screen. Philip was looking at another map, but one which seemed to show a load of straight lined and right-angles rather than roads.

"What's that you have there?" I asked.

"This is a plan of the pipeline system for this city," he explained. "I pulled it off the website for the main water supplier of this place. It's available for anyone to look at."

"How do we know where each of those pipes lead to?"

"I hope someone else can give me a hand on that one," Philip said. "Anyone good with graphics?"

"I'll have a go," said Sam. "I took that subject for my GCSEs. Have you got a graphics program on here, Marco?"

"Yeah, I think PhotoShop on there," he replied. "What are GCSEs by the way?"

"Oh, the main exams we sit in year eleven. When we're sixteen. Not fun."

Philip explained to Sam what he wanted, and I sat back and chatted to Tobias while they worked things out.

"Do you know what morphs they have?" Tobias asked, referring to the new guys.

"Kind of," I replied. "Sam's told me about a million times, but I'm still trying to remember them all. I think Sam has a leopard morph for battle, and one of them has an ox or something, but I'm not sure about the others."

"Are you talking about us?" Ferdie asked, grinning.

"Just trying to remember what morphs you guys have," I said. "Who is it who has an ox?"

"Philip," he replied. "He's also got a wolverine for battle. I've got a lynx, Sam has a leopard and Maggie and Philip both have wolves."

"That's a good selection," I said. "Did you get them all from a zoo?"

"Yeah, my uncle owns an estate," Ferdie explained. "It's got a zoo and this mini-safari park thing."

"He owns an estate?" asked Tobias. "You mean like a country mansion?"

"Yar," Ferdie replied, shrugging. I guess the guy didn't really bother with being impressed by his family's fortunes.

"Ok, people," said Sam after a few minutes. "We're just about done here." She handed me a printout of something, and I pinned it up on the notice board.

"What am I looking at?" I asked.

"You're looking at a map of the city," said Philip. "Over which Sam has superimposed the plan of the city's pipeline. Both maps are to the same scale, so you can see whereabouts the hospital is, where the different treatment plants and reservoirs are, and where the pipes lead."

"Ok," I said, impressed. "That's a good start, but how do we know which plant the Yeerks have control of?"

"We're just on that one now," Sam said. "Ax? I might need you over here again."

"Of course," he said, still licking his lips from the cookies.

They sat down and opened up the web page to the city hospital.

"This is going to require all of your hacking skills, Ax," Sam said.

"I don't believe I shall need to try particularly hard," he replied. "This should not be a complicated task. Your security systems are laughable."

See what I mean about Andalites being arrogant?

"Ax, just got on with it," I sighed.

"Yes, Prince Jake."

"I have reminded you that you don't need to call me Prince, haven't I?"

"Yes, Prince Jake. Ake," he added for good measure.

"What do you Andalites call a female warrior?" asked Maggie, as Ax tapped away. "Princess? Lady? Ma'am? "

"I do not believe we have ever had a female warrior," Ax replied. "Therefore, that question has never been addressed."

"That's a bit sexist, isn't it?" she went on. "Ok, what about female politicians and leaders?"

"Again, that event has yet to occur."

"Right," said Maggie, a little downhearted.

I opened a window, as the room was getting pretty stuffy with all ten of us crowded into it. Cassie and Rachel wandered out into the living room; there wasn't much for them to do in here. Ferdie followed them and threw himself onto the couch.

"Are you really a lord?" Cassie asked him.

"Well, I suppose you could say that," he said casually. "Why? Do you have a thing for lords?" he grinned.

"He's not a lord!" Philip called. "And Flawless? Stop showing off. They're taken. And so are you."

I left the three of them to their discussions about the brothers' considerable wealth, and turned back to Sam and Ax.

"How are you getting on?" I asked.

"Very well, Prince Jake," Ax answered. "As I imagined, the security system was not a challenge to by-pass."

"So, what have you got for us?"

"A list of all the people who have been admitted to the city hospital in the last week," Sam replied. "Now, we just need to sort out which patients are most likely to have been made into Controllers. You got your highlighters ready?"

I grabbed the markers and passed them to Sam. "How are we going to do that?"

"Ok, I'm going to print out several copies," she said. "I need someone to go through and highlight all the names of the people who have been admitted to the pharmacology lab as outpatients. As well as anyone who have had the same symptoms, and anyone who received the same drug. From that, we should be able to work out by a process of elimination which of the patients were probably taken by the Yeerks. We can then look up their addresses on the database, and plot them on the map. This will give us an idea of where the patients live in relation to the pipelines, and from there it should be possible to work out which plant provides their water, and hence, which plant the Yeerks have control of."

I looked at her and Philip, slightly shocked. "Brilliant," I said, nodding. Talk about getting down to business. "Lets get started then."

We spent the next hour or so in the study and living room, going through the lists of patients, marking the appropriate names and crossing out others. It was a long and tedious process, but one which had to be done.

"Guys, I gotta go demorph," Tobias said after a while. "Ax? You coming?"

The two of them stepped out into the living room where there was more room, and de- and remorphed.

Eventually, we had a list of around fifty names, which we suspected to be the Controllers. They all had been admitted to the same department of the hospital, had the same symptoms, and were given the same treatment. Cassie worked on the lists regarding the drugs used, since she was the only one who was at all familiar with any of the names.

"Wow. Have I just walked into CID?" exclaimed Ferdie, walking into the study and throwing down his marker.

Sam laughed. The whole of the main wall was covered in several copies of the double map. On each of the maps, we'd used different colored drawings pins to mark the addresses of the suspected Controllers. Sam was scribbling notes around each of the main areas, and had highlighting the main pipelines which lay under the neighborhoods where there were the most pins. Marco was bustling about, reading out addresses and postcodes to Philip, who was efficiently locating the addresses on the map, and placing more pins. Finally, we were done. Sam ushered everyone to sit down and moved towards the wall-maps.

"Right," she said, standing to one side and grabbing a ruler and using it to point at the maps.

"Excuse me, miss, but will this be on the mid-term?" asked Marco innocently.

Sam rolled her eyes and continued. "You can see here that we have a far greater number of patients who live in this block than any of the others. This gives us the impression that most of the Controllers came from the same area."

She paused, making sure we were all following.

"So, if we look at the plan of the pipe system, we can see that this block here is fed by three main lines. Each of these three lines connects to one big line, which starts that this facility to the north of the city."

"That must be where the Yeerks are adding the chemical, right?" asked Tobias, who was now fully human again.

"That's what we hope," Philip said. "It certainly makes the most sense."

"What about those people who don't live anywhere near that block?" asked Marco. "There's a pin there that's miles away from the cluster."

"We thought that was probably because someone was visiting a neighbor or whatever away from home. They would have drunk the water in a different neighborhood, but given the hospital their own address," Philip replied.

"How about that small cluster to the south of the main one?"

"That's a school," Philip went on. "If you look carefully, you can see that its' pipe system is actually connected to the same one that feeds the neighborhood where most of the patients live."

I nodded, smiling. "That's good work, guys," I said, looking around at everyone. "That's really cleared things up for us, and given us a lot more information to play around with. We now know which plant the Yeerks have control of, and which neighborhoods are those most likely to be affected."

"So if anyone goes to visit anyone in any of those blocks, don't ask them for tap water," Maggie said.

"Right then, what do we do now?" asked Philip, looking at Sam and I.

"We check out the facility," I said. "Fly over there at night sometime soon. Work out where the chemical is being added, and find a way to stop this."

"Have you guys all got owl morphs?" Cassie asked Sam and the others.

"Yeah, we have some," she replied.

"Good," I said looking around at everyone. "I think we should leave that until tomorrow night. What does everyone think?"

"Um, I've got an early morning test on Monday, buddy." Marco said. "So have you. We shouldn't be out working all night."

"So school comes before saving the world?" asked Ferdie, raising his eyebrows.

"Look, I'd much rather-" started Marco.

"It will have to be tonight then," I interrupted. "Everyone? Meet at Cassie's barn at ten this evening in your morphing suits only. We'll take it from there."

"Ok, sure," said Sam. "We'd better go find somewhere to grab something to eat."

"You can stay at mine if you like," Cassie said. "My parents are out this evening at some veterinary conference, so I'm sure I'll be able to cook something up. Do you want to join us, Jake?"

"I gotta go home for a bit and spring another load of lies of my parents, but sure, I'd love that."

"I can cook, if you like," said Ferdie. "Among my many talents, I'm also a chef."

"Thanks very much, Cassie," replied Philip.

"Well, I hope you enjoy your last supper," said Marco sarcastically, wandering into his bedroom and pulling on some clothes. "See you guys at execution time."

"Later," I said, as we morphed to raptors and took off through the open window.


	13. Chapter 13: Let's Do It!

Chapter 13

"I need to go back over to Cassie's again later," I told my parents as we ate dinner. My parents are really into the whole eating together as a family thing - both of them work quite long hours and they insist that this is the one time that we can sit around the table together and make small talk . Tom was there too, although he sat pretty quiet for most of the time. I guess a Yeerk working to infest the human population isn't going to be too intent on discussing his day.

"Does it have to be tonight?" my dad asked, sighing. "You've been out all day - we've hardly seen you. I thought we could stay in and watch that movie on TV tonight."

"I left some stuff round there which I need to pick up," I said, beginning to feel a little guilty. Being the leader of the Animorphs has left me with very little time for socializing with my family. "Some of my school books. I need to them to study for tomorrow. We've got a test on Monday. Sorry," I added, hoping they wouldn't press me. It was partly true, anyway. I _had _left my books round there, as well as my bike and most of my clothes from before we flew over to Marco's.

"Well, I guess you can't compromise good grades for the sake of Arnold Schwarzenegger," my dad said. "I hope you're not working too hard though, we hardly get to see you anymore, and when we do, you always seem so stressed."

I smiled, wishing that grades were the real reason that I was never around anymore. "It's just some start-of-term refresher thing we've got to do," I said. "Cassie was giving me a hand with some of the stuff on biology."

My brother smirked at this, putting on his older brother act. "Yeah right you were studying," he said, snatching the tomato ketchup from me. "Biology? You sure she wasn't giving you a practical demonstration?"

"Hey!" I laughed, playing my own act. "You'll take that back!" I took a pea from my plate and flicked it at him. He ducked, threw one of his own peas back at me, laughing harder.

"Would you boys quit throwing food at each other?" my mom scolded. "You're behaving like pair of wild animals!"

"So I take it I'm right then?" Tom grinned. "Jake and Cassie, sitting in a tree…"

"Whatever," I said, thinking at least Tom wouldn't start becoming suspicious as to what I was up to. Who would have thought that two enemies would be engaging in a food fight in their parent's kitchen?

I finished off my dinner and flew round to Cassie's. I found a smelly pigsty in which to demorph, and walked barefoot to her front door. It was getting dark, and it took me a while to remember where the entrance to her house was. I was so used to just going straight to the barn - I hadn't used her front door in a while.

It was about half past eight as I rang the doorbell. Cassie opened and let me in.

"Hey, Jake," she smiled at me. "We're just in the living room. The others have been here all evening." She led me into the lounge where Philip, Ferdie, Sam and Maggie were sitting chatting and watching TV. They were all wearing their morphing outfits, with the exception of Cassie, who was wearing her usual mud-stained overalls.

"Hi, guys," I said, as they all turned to greet me. "All ready for tonight?"

"Absolutely," Ferdie replied, laying back on the couch. "Our first mission together. Should be good."

"You say it as if this whole thing was just one big polo match," said Philip, rolling his eyes. "This isn't a game, you know."

"Yes, I know that," Ferdie replied absently. He looked at me then nodded towards the kitchen. "I cooked up some spaghetti bolognese, by the way. I think there's quite a bit left over. You can have some if you like."

"Thanks," I said, walking into the kitchen. I had already eaten of course, but I didn't want to be rude. The spag bol did smell good.

"I hope they're up to it," said a soft voice. I turned around. Cassie had followed me into the kitchen. "We have no idea what they're like on a mission."

"I'm sure they'll be ok," I replied, taking a mouthful of Ferdie's creation. It wasn't bad, I could give him that. "They seemed to work well when we met them down at the Yeerk pool. Why? Did they say something that made you nervous?"

Cassie is excellent at reading people. She can pick up on the tiniest little things in someone's speech that no normal person could ever hear.

"No, no," she said. "I was just thinking…you know. This is going to be such a different mission to anything we've done so far."

"Try not to worry," I assured her. "I'm sure it can only work out for the best."

"I trust your judgment, Jake, you do know that, right?"

"Of course I do. And I want to do what's best for everyone here." I smiled at her and we walked back into the living room and sat down on one of the squashy leather armchairs. Cassie's house always feels so warm and inviting; there's an open log fire, soft carpeting and exposed wooden beams in the ceilings. It's one of those really traditional old farmhouses, and has been in her family for several generations. It was difficult to feel tense here.

"We've worked out how we're going to get all our stuff down to the valley," Sam told me. "All the clothes we bought. It's not too cold there at the moment, but it's going to be really chilly when autumn arrives."

I nodded, feeling a little bad that I hadn't really given their situation much thought. They'd spent the last few nights there with nothing more that what they could take in bird morph. So basically just their morphing clothes and a small box of matches that Maggie had carried down in her talons.

"That's great," I said. "How? I don't think there's any type of vehicle that can get down there, and it's too far to walk."

"Flawless came up with the idea, actually," she said, grinning at him. "He thought we ride down there. You know, on horseback."

"Ah," I said. "So, will one of you be morphing and someone else loading the stuff on their back, or what?"

"No," said Ferdie, "because there won't be any way for us to hold on to the bags and stuff when we're in morph. So Cassie has said we can tack up an few of her horses and ride them down there, taking our clothes in backpacks. We'll dump our bags, leave the stuff in the valley, then ride the hoses back up here."

"I hope you're as good a rider as you say you are, Ferdie," Cassie said cautiously. "Those are really steep hills down to the valley. And none of us have ever got there except in bird morph."

"I'm a fantastic rider," he replied, without a hint of modesty. "Learned to ride before I could walk."

"Well, I'm only letting you take two of them, and I'll be riding one of them," Cassie said. "We'll try and go down tomorrow afternoon. Assuming this mission all goes ok tonight."

"It will," said Sam optimistically. "Have you worked out all the details yet, Jake?"

"I was going to wait until the others arrived first," I said, realizing that although she was team leader for the British Animorphs, she still held me in overall control. I respected this, and decided to run my plans past her. "I've got a general idea of what should happen though. We've got much better numbers now that we've had before, which is a bonus. But I don't think we need all of us to actually enter the facility. Some of us can wait outside in wolf morph, acting as back-up."

"Good idea," she said. "Or go as owls and keep an eye on the perimeter."

I nodded, then turned the conversation towards their morphing outfits, wanting to leave the rest of the plans until the rest of my team were around to discuss them.

"I see you've got new morphing suits?" I asked Sam and the others.

"Aye," replied Maggie. She had replaced her old red and orange gymnastics leotard with a maroon one-piece, with full length arms and legs. "Our old ones weren't looking too good. And we wanted some warmer ones for when we are living in the valley."

I nodded understandingly. We could only morph minimal clothing, and they weren't enough to keep us warm.

"Yeah, I can imagine," I said. "I see Rachel's designer label obsession has rubbed off on you, Sam?" I laughed, looking at her trendy black and gray leggings and tank top.

"She did get rather excited, yes," Sam smiled. "I practically had to drag her away from the sales."

We continued chatting for a while, until I suggested we made our way down to the barn to wait for the others. Cassie immediately went to work, feeding the animals and changing bandages and stuff.

Tobias and Ax were the first to arrive. Tobias was himself, followed by Ax who was in harrier morph. Ax steeled down on the ground and began his demorph. Soon, Marco arrived as an osprey, and finally Rachel, as a bald eagle.

--Hands up all who are ready for their first kamikaze mission,-- Marco said, looking at Sam and the others as he demorphed.

--Shut up, Marco,-- Rachel said, as her beak melted into her face and long, blonde hair grew from her head. --This is going to be a piece of cake. Probably won't even be a fight, so it's going to borderline tedious.--

--Well, go Miss Confident,-- Marco said sarcastically. --Just as long as you realize this whole this is insane. Fighting the Yeerks by sneaking into the sewers.--

--This is hardly insane, Marco,-- Rachel replied. --Not like some things we've done.--

"Ok, people, this is it," I said, cutting off Marco and standing up in front of everyone, like I was making some dumb pre-operation motivational speech. It was really only for the benefit of the new guys, and to make it clear to everyone what things had changed. "Our first mission as a team. We're going to do this, guys, and we are going to succeed."

Marco rolled his eyes - he'd been on enough missions to know that this speech thing wasn't really my style. He also knew that I'd learned the hard way not to be overly optimistic, even when it came to the simplest of missions.

"We fly to the water facility in owl morph. It's about five miles north of here, on the outskirts of the city." I glanced up into the rafters. "Tobias? You know this city best from the air. Could you lead us there?"

--Sure,-- he replied. --Although my eyesight won't be as good as your owl morphs.--

"I don't think the place should be too hard to find," Philip replied. "It's pretty much the only building of it's kind in the vicinity."

"Ok, so there's quite a few of us on this mission," I said. "More numbers than we've ever had before. That can only be a good thing. So…I don't think we all need to enter the facility. Five of us should be enough. Everyone else can stay outside in owl or wolf morph and keep a look out."

--Which of us should morph what, Prince Jake?-- asked Ax. He was still in his Andalite form, looking more than a little out of place among all the horses and raccoons. Luckily, both Cassie's parents were out, so there it was very unlikely someone would walk in on him.

"I'll go into the facility," I said. "We'll also want someone who will be good at working out where we have to go once we're inside. Philip? You're good with directions. I think you should join us."

Philip nodded. "What morphs are we going to use to enter?"

"Well, I'll get on to all that in a moment, but I think we should go in as insects. Ax, you should come too, incase we need to tap into any computers. Marco and Rachel? You two also."

"So I have to listen to Marco's pathetic whining all the way?" asked Rachel. "Not to mention the stupid jokes he always makes when we're trying to concentrate."

"Since when did you concentrate, Rachel?" Marco retorted. "All you ever seem to do is morph and fight."

"Would you two hold your arguing for after the mission?" I snapped. "We want to get this thing done as soon as possible, and I can't have you two bickering the whole time."

"What about the rest of us?" asked Sam. "Who's going owl, and who's going wolf?"

"Do you have a wolf morph?" Cassie asked.

"Maggie has one," Sam replied. "But neither me nor Ferdie."

"Well, you two will need to be owls then," I said. "Maggie, Cassie - you guys go wolf. Tobias? You stay as yourself and keep an eye on the others while they are morphing and demorphing. This thing will probably take over two hours, so make sure they don't go over the limit."

"Yeah, Tobias is obviously the best person for that job," Marco muttered, then fell silent as he realized what he's said. Tobias ruffled his wings noisy and gave Marco a fierce stare.

"We should morph," I said, before anything else could be said. "Owls. Once we reach the facility, we'll need to find somewhere outside the place to demorph and remorph into our respective animals. Flies for Philip and Rachel. Roaches for Marco, Ax and I. Wolves and owls for everyone else. The five of us zip past security - they shouldn't be a problem - then find an open window or something to get in through. We'll work out the rest from there."

"Do you always improvise like this?" asked Philip, looking at me. "Make half a plan, and just see what happens?"

I gave him a slightly-too-cold stare. "We've done as much as we can," I said. "If there's anything else you'd like to add, feel free to do that. But I think you'll agree there is nothing more that we could have known without actually being there for ourselves."

Philip nodded, saying nothing.

"Ok, I said, pausing. "Are we ready?" I looked at Rachel.

"What is it?" asked Sam, a confused expression on her face.

"Let's do it!" said Rachel.

--There we go,-- said Tobias. He looked at Sam and Philip. .--This is official. We're not allowed to go until Marco has said this whole thing is insane, and Rachel has said 'let's do it'.--


	14. Chapter 14: Endless Corridors

Chapter 14

We flew towards the water facility - five great horned owls, three barn owls, a tawny owl and a red-tailed hawk. Tobias was out in front, showing us the way. I felt a little bad that he didn't have an owl morph like the rest of us; hawks are daytime fliers and don't take too well to the night sky when there are no thermals and his eyesight wasn't too good.

--That's the place, down there,-- Tobias called, after a half hour of flying. I looked down towards the ground. We were about a hundred feet up, and there was very little light from the streets now we were out in the suburbs, but my vision was incredible. The owl could see everything as if it was lit up by stadium lights. Darkness meant nothing to me. For all the owl could have cared, it was midday.

--It looks like that big warehouse-like building to the east is the main facility,-- said Sam, swooping downwards for a better look. I spilled some air from under my wings and dived down, taking in every detail of the facility. There was a large building resembling offices, surrounds by a series of smaller buildings. There was a great deal of complicated looking pipework, snaking its way systematically to a series of large, round chemical pools. Further out, near the highway, was a huge rectangular reservoir. The whole place was surrounded by a single barbed wire fence, beyond which were fields to the north and woods to the south.

--There's a security guard down by the main gate,-- Tobias said. --He doesn't look too alert. Mainly, he just looks bored.--

--Security shouldn't be much of a problem,-- I said.

--Oh yeah?-- said Marco. --What about the two guys down there with guns?--

--What? They have guns?-- asked Rachel, perking up. --They've gotta be Controllers then.--

--I agree,-- said Philip. --Normal guards don't use rifles like that to guard a water facility, unless there was something else going on.--

--So, what do we do now?-- asked Cassie. --Demorph within or outside the perimeter?--

--I think everyone who's coming with me as bugs should morph inside the perimeter,-- I said. --It's a bit of a trek from the other side of the fence to the main building. Everyone else, you can stay in the woods and morph wolf or stay as owl.--

--Flawless and Maggie? We should demorph and remorph to reset the two-hour limit,-- said Sam. --You too, Cassie,-- she added, sounding a little awkward that she was giving instructions to a member of my team.

--Good idea,-- said Cassie understandingly.

--Right then,-- I said. --Let's do this. Philip, Rachel, Marco and Ax: on me. Everyone else, stick with Sam. We'll try and keep in contact by thought-speak, but I don't know how far the limits will stretch, so try not to panic if you don't hear anything from us after a while.--

The five of us flew silently, unseen, over the facility, looking for somewhere near to the main entrance to demorph, leaving the others to demorph in safety of the trees.

--Down behind that smaller building over there,-- I instructed. --I can't see any cameras or guards. We should be ok.--

We dropped down behind the building and started to demorph. Soon, there were four human kids and an Andalite looking stupidly out of place among the dirty pipes.

"Bugs, then," I said, focusing on the cockroach inside me. "Once we're fully morphed, we'll make our way through that ventilation system by the main door. Philip, since you are going fly, you might have to show us the way from the air. It's not too easy to see where you're going when your eyes are a millimeter from the ground."

"Sure," said Philip, as began to shrink. Philip is quite a fast morpher, although no where near as fast as Cassie. Still, he was halfway through his morph before I'd even started to shrink myself.

"This is one gross morph," said Marco, as his skin began to turn brown and hard, like tough, shiny plastic. "I mean, would you take a look at my face? What's with this things' eyeballs?"

--I think it's an improvement,-- said Rachel, who had already lost her human mouth and was now having to use thought-speak. --The coloring really suits you.--

"Yeah, well maybe I'll sign up to model the new Calvin Klein range," he muttered. We all laughed nervously, apart from Ax, who obviously had no idea what we were talking about.

When we were all morphed, I sent a thought-speak message to Sam, confirming that she could still hear us.

--Loud and clear,-- she replied. --I can see you, as a matter of fact. If you get lost, I'll let you know where to go.--

--Thanks,-- replied Philip. --We're planning to enter through that ventilation shaft by the main door.--

--Good luck, guys!-- called Maggie, who would be morphing wolf along with Cassie.

We scuttled over the concrete towards the shaft, keeping the main building close by. Our eyesight wasn't great - we couldn't make out much more than what was a few feet in front of us - and we couldn't afford to stray out into the car park. Philip, as a fly, flew a few centimeters above us. It was about ten or so meters from where we'd demorphed, but we covered the ground quickly. Roaches can pick up some speed when they want, and it felt to my human mind that I was driving a racing car at top speed.

--Ok, guys, you're right below the shaft,-- said Sam. --It's about twenty centimeters above you, embedded in the wall.--

--That's the equivalent of a five-story building to us, then,-- said Marco dryly.

--Would you for once quit being such a pessimist?-- said Rachel.

--Hey,-- retorted Marco. --We're going into a sewage facility. Sewage. Any idea what makes up sewage, Rachel? It's not exactly going to be an art gallery in there. And I hope for your sake you're not wearing your best morphing outfit.--

--Look,-- I said, trying to stop the two of them squabbling. --We're just looking around the main building. We probably won't even go anywhere near the pipes. Besides, this is just a water pump, not a treatment plant. Most of the water will be fairly clean.--

--Yeah right, Jake,-- said Marco. --You obviously don't believe that, or you wouldn't have had us all acquire rat morphs.--

--I just had everyone acquire them just in case we needed them,-- I said. --I don't actually plan on using them to wade through the city's…you know.--

--What is the purpose of this facility?-- asked Ax. --I sense its' function causes you humans a great deal of distress.--

--We're just being picky,-- I said to him. --It's not like it's dangerous or anything.--

--Just really, really gross,-- said Marco.

--Are we gonna get inside, or what?-- asked Rachel impatiently. --We're not going to get anything done by hanging around outside all night.--

--You just want to pick a fight with a Hork-Bajir,-- said Marco.

--Yeah, Rachel's right,-- I said, ignoring him. --Philip? You want to go first?--

--Absolutely,-- he said. I felt a movement of air above me, as Philip buzzed into the shaft. A few second later, I heard his voice.

--Ok, Jake,-- he said. --It's clear to come straight through. There's some kind of grating on this side of the shaft, but there are gaps in it that you can easily slip though.--

--Anyone around?-- I asked.

--Can't see anyone, or hear anyone. These eyes aren't great, but I've had enough practice in it to know that we're probably clear.--

I turned towards the wall and placed one of my six multi-jointed legs against the wall. Then, slipping into the roach's brain, I ran vertically up the brickwork, my claws effortlessly finding every little nook and cranny that I could grab hold of. It was so easy, it was just like I was running across a horizontal path. I knew that if I let go, I would fall backwards on to the ground, but that didn't seem to matter to me. Soon, I had reached the shaft. I entered the space, which, although in reality was probably only a few centimeters wide, seemed like a vast tunnel to me. Quickly, I made my way through the grating on the other side, and plopped down on to the floor inside the building. Soon, I was joined by Rachel, Ax and Marco.

--What do we do now?-- Rachel asked.

--I think we should find somewhere to demorph,-- I said. --There's no one around, and we won't be able to find anything because we can't read any of the signs. Marco and Philip, you two should stay in morph though. We don't need us all to risk being spotted. And you two can fly go ahead of us and check out some of the rooms before we enter.--

--I think it's really creepy that there's no'one about,-- said Rachel, as we made our way into a small room off the main corridor. --Surely, if the Yeerks were up to something, they'd have more guards around.--

--Well, they've got men with guns, Rach,-- said Marco. --I expect most of the Controllers will be hanging about right where the chemical is added.--

--I doubt that, Marco,-- said Ax. --The Yeerks might be expecting us to turn us. They wouldn't post a group of guards right where they are adding the chemical. It would only signal to us where they were carrying out their work. It seems to me that the Yeerks would be more likely just to leave the place protected by means of a password entrance, and possibly some of your primitive security cameras.--

--You can override any password system, right, Ax?-- asked Philip.

--It should not be a problem,-- he replied. --Yeerk security is far more advanced than human technology, but it should still be possible for me to gain entry.--

--You know, you really don't have to include an insult whenever you mention human technology,-- said Marco casually. --Yes a simple 'yes, I can,' will do fine.--

--Now's not the time to get into an argument, Marco,-- I said. --Right. This room looks clear. I can't see any sign of anyone in here. Rachel, Ax? We should demorph. Ax, you go first incase there are any Controllers who need sorting out.--

A few minutes later, I realized that the reason why there was no one in this room was because we were in a very cramped broom-cupboard. It stank of dust, dirt and cleaning fluids.

"Can we get out of here, before Ax chops off my head with his tail blade?" asked Rachel impatiently. "I can't move in this space."

"Yeah, come on, let's go," I said, opening the door under which we'd entered, and stepping out into the corridor. The place was dark and gloomy, lit only by weak fluorescent lighting. The corridor was long and thin, leading round to the left at one end, and forming a T junction at the other. There were a dozen or so rooms leading off it, some doors marks, others not. I scanned the walls, looking out for cameras, but seeing none. I guess the Yeerks weren't afraid of people breaking and entering to steal human waste.

"Come on, let's go this way," I said, walking briskly along to the end of the corridor ending in the left-turn. Philip buzzed, fly formed, in front of us, and Marco scuttled along under foot.

"I'm so tempted to step on you, Marco," said Rachel, peering at his ugly little roach body. "The only reason why I'm not going to is because I'm barefoot."

--Yeah, you wouldn't want to ruin your toe-nail polish, would you?-- he retorted.

We wandered down the corridors for a bit, turning this way and that, not really sure what we were looking for.

"We could do with a map of this place or something," I said. "Blueprints, to find out what is where."

--Bit late for that now,-- said Philip. --We'll just have to rely on the signs so that we don't get lost.--

But the whole place just looked the same. Rows and rows of endless corridors. Plain, unmarked walls. Steel doorways. No landmarks to stick in our minds whatsoever.

"We are so lost," said Rachel. "I swear we've already been down here.

--I do remember seeing that particular sign not too long ago, Prince Jake,-- said Ax, whose hooves were clicking on the hard floor. --I think we must turn right in order to get back to the main entrance.--

"Well, we're not looking for the main entrance, we're looking for something that tells us where the Yeerks are adding the chemical," I muttered.

"Well, where the heck to we go from here?" said Rachel, peering around.

Suddenly,

--Prince Jake! I hear someone!--

"Same here," said Rachel. "They're coming down the corridor!"

"We don't have time to morph," I said. "Quickly! In here!"

I opened the first door I came to, and we piled inside. I kept the door open very slightly, peering out into the corridor.

A middle aged man, maybe in his late forties or fifties, strode purposely past us, talking on a cell phone. I opened the door a crack more, watching as he stopped outside a room.

"Yes, sir," said the guy. "I'm just about to run a system check now. I'll get back to you on the progress."

He ended the call and slipped his cell into his pocket. He looked over his should his a moment, then turned to a small keypad by the door and punched in a code. The door clicked open, and the man stepped inside, closing the door behind him.

"That looked like a Controller," said Rachel. "We should follow him."

"How can you tell?" I asked. "Might have just been some employee."

"He looked too on edge to be a normal guy. Besides, he was carrying a gun in his jacket. It looked like a Dracon beam."

After a few minutes, the guys stepped out of the room and make his way back along the corridors, the way he'd come.

"Let's go," I said, opening the door and letting Rachel and Ax through.


	15. Chapter 15: Building 4A

Chapter 15

We waited nervously outside the room, waiting as Ax fiddled around with the keypad. He had removed the front of the key pad, and his delicate Andalite fingers were now working efficiently, twisting and re-fitting the exposed wires. At last, the door clicked open, and we stepped through. Philip flew in over my head, and Marco ran in, trying to avoid Ax's hooves.

"Where are we?" asked Rachel, as we scanned the room. It was a medium sized area, with several computer terminals, some desks and a load of filing cabinets. A notice board was pinned up on the wall, and the room was lit by harsh strip lighting. There were papers and folders scattered about, and the whole place was pretty untidy.

"Well, by the sign on the door, I'd guess we are in the primary control office," I muttered. "Marco and Philip, you may as well demorph. I have a feeling we're going to be piling through these folders, and it's going to take a while."

I walked over to the door and shut it, hoping that it would lock from the other side. Soon, Philip and Marco were fully human, and we crowded round one of the computer terminals.

"This one's screen saver isn't on yet," said Philip, sitting down at the desk and moving the mouse around. "Maybe it's the one the guy has just been fiddling about on."

"What did he say he was doing?" Rachel asked. "Carrying out some kind of control check?"

"Yeah, I think so," said Philip. "My guess is that if he was doing it in the middle of the night and not during the day, it's most likely he's checking up on the equipment that adds the chemical."

"Maybe we can access his last files," suggested Marco. "Find out a bit more about this whole thing."

"Yeah," I agreed. "Ax and Philip, why don't you guys work on that? The rest of us will see what we can find in these files."

"I take it these people aren't exactly into the whole Feng Shui thing," muttered Rachel, staring at the mess. "I mean, where are we supposed to start?"

"Try looking though the newer folders first," I suggested. "The dates are all marked on the spines. I don't think this project has been going on long, so anything we need will be in the recent files."

We skimmed through the masses of paper, looking for anything that might be useful. Marco put aside some papers on some plans for the construction of a new reservoir. Rachel found something that gave permission for some new piping that was dated just a few weeks ago. I found a rough map of the facility.

--Prince Jake, I think we have found something that might be beneficial to you,-- said Ax. --We have managed to take a look at a list of the most recent documents and programs opened. The Controller we observed entering this room has been checking this spreadsheet here.--

I walked over to the computer and peered at the screen. At first, it just looked like a complicated grid of letters and numbers. Then, I noticed a sub-note at the bottom of the page.

"Building 4A," I said. "That's where the computer that controls the chemical's release is being held," I read. "We should get over there and see if we should shut it down."

"But the guy just ran a control check," Marco pointed out. "If he discovers that the equipment has suddenly stopped working, he'll know something has shut it down."

"Well, I can't see what else we are supposed to do," I said. "We can't sit around on this for long. People are being made into Controllers. We have to stop this."

"I'm all for it," said Rachel, throwing down the notes she was holding. "We're here now, we might as well do what we came to do."

"Well, there's a surprise," said Marco sardonically. "Rachel's all for it."

I picked up the map of the facility and grabbed a pen from the desk. "Right. We are here," I said, circling the main building. Building 4A is here, by this smaller tank. We'll need to find a way over to it. I think we should morph rats."

"We're going above ground, right?" asked Marco cautiously. "I don't want to go swimming in anyone else's gravy just yet."

"Yeah," I replied. "We'll have to get out of this building first though." I pointed back to the map. "The primary control room is marked here. That's where we are. So we need to go back out of this door, along the corridor the way we came, then out this door here."

"That door is alarmed, dude," Marco pointed out. "You can tell by the little asterisk."

"Um, ok. We'll, there's a small room here with some windows. We'll check and see if they're open, and go out that way."

We made out way down the corridors, with Ax and Philip leading the way. Philip's best with directions, and Ax has an excellent memory for remembering which ways to turn. Finally, we found a couple of bathrooms. The female's room had an open window.

"See? The girl's room is always so much nicer than the mens'." said Rachel, as we all clambered through the window and slid down onto the grass. Ax, who couldn't fit through in his Andalite body, morphed straight to rat and I carried him through. The rest of us quickly completed our own morphs.

--This thing has a really disgusting love of beetles and maggots,-- said Marco. --And it feels disturbingly at home here.--

--Not as bad as when I did my shrew morph,-- said Rachel. --That was really horrible. This rat is a lot easier to handle, too. Basically the same as the other rat morph I have.--

--I remember that shrew morph,-- said Marco with a sigh of nostalgia. --The taming of the shrew-Rachel. What an evening.--

I ignored their conversation and called out to the others, who I hoped were still in wolf or owl morph.

--Sam? It's Jake. How you guys doing out there?--

--Yeah, all good,-- came the reply. --Not much has changed. Where are you?--

--We're rats. Round the back of the building. So if any of you can see us, try not to eat us for supper.--

--I see you,-- said Ferdie. --Very tasty looking. Would go well with a bit of mouse.--

--Oh god, another Marco,-- said Rachel. --Now we've got two jokers hanging around.--

--Just trying to keep up the morale,-- Ferdie replied. --So, where are you heading off to now?--

--Building 4A,-- I replied. --It's a small structure near one of the water tanks. You can help us look for it, if you like.--

--Why not?-- he said happily. My rat brain suddenly became aware of a large form, swooping over me. Ferdie as a barn owl. I resisted the urge to run.

We scampered across the grass, passing several other smaller buildings and a variety of tanks, pipes, water towers and huts. The place was set out in a kind of grid system, with small roads running in parallel lines, and groups of those big round tanks in clusters of four. At least, this was what I had remembered from when we flew over as owls. It was quite difficult to make out what was what when you were a rodent.

At last, Ferdie told us that we'd reached the correct building.

--It's clear,-- he told us. --I can see foot prints on the ground outside, so I think there might have been someone about a while ago, but they're long gone now.--

--How are we meant to get in?-- asked Marco.

--The building looks rather ancient,-- Ferdie said. --There's some kind of burrow that leads underneath. If you squeeze down there, you might be able to come up though the floorboards.--

--Burrow? Like a badger or something?-- asked Marco. --We're rats. We don't want to get into a fight with any badgers.--

--I can't see any signs that there's been anything living down there in a while. No droppings or whatever. You should be fine.--

--Yeah, well, I'm holding you personally responsible for anything that happens for my little rat butt, posh-boy.--

--Don't listen to him, Ferdie,-- I said. --Come on. Let's get down there.--

I entered the burrow, which made my rat's brain feel more at home. It liked dark, dingy tunnels like this. There were lots of tasty smelling beetles crawling about.

--Jake, would you quit looking for lunch and just get down there?-- snapped Marco.

--Oh, sorry,-- I said, realizing that I'd let the rat's instincts take over for a few seconds. We reached the end of the tunnel, and found ourselves under the foundations of the building. There was a small gap in the floorboards that we could just squeeze through.

--Let's demorph,-- I said. --Take a look around.--


	16. Chapter 16: Zee Or Zed?

Chapter 16

We quickly morphed back to human - or in Ax's case, Andalite - and stood shivering in the cold building. I ran my hands along the wall, looking for a light switch. I found one, and a single light bulb hanging from the ceiling flickered to life.

We looked around at our surroundings. We were in a small, single-roomed building. There was one door, and several dusty windows. There was a desk, a chair, and a few dusty folders of various files and sheets of paper. The place reminded me of some kind of army barracks or whatever.

"I wonder if there's some kind of computer terminal around," Philip said. "Or maybe the controls here are all manual valves."

"What about all this?" said Marco, turning towards the wall behind us. It was lit up with a series of LEDs and LCD displays. There was a grid of switches, buttons and knobs, each marked by a series of letters and numbers. It looked about thirty years old.

"What does it all mean?" said Rachel, peering at it. "Is this where they control the adding of the chemical?"

"My guess is as good as yours," I told her. "Ax? What's your take on all this?"

--My first thought was that for I moment I assumed we had entered some kind of human museum,-- he said. I rolled my eyes, not sure if this was supposed to be Ax's attempt at a joke or just another insult to human technology.

"Ax, this isn't top of the range stuff," Marco retorted. "Just give us your take on it and quit with the remarks."

--Well, I believe that yes, this is where the addition of the chemical to the water is controlled,-- Ax replied. --This system must control the valves which allow for the flow of the water, and some of them must allow different chemicals into the tanks. One, I assume, is the chemical that is causing humans to become ill.--

"Right," I said, trying to focus on what to do next. "So if we can work out how to work this thing, we might be able to shut down the system that releases the chemical."

"And you're just going to pick up the nearest manual, are you?" asked Marco sarcastically.

I shrugged, realizing none of us had any idea how to work this thing. "Well, we can't risk playing around with the switches, incase we mess up something else. A whole district of people could end up with a load of sewage coming out of their showers this evening."

"That is not a pleasant thought," said Marco.

"No," Philip agreed. "And we might accidentally release a chemical that kills these people."

"So what then?" asked Marco, sighing.

"I say we stomp the place," said Rachel eagerly. "Just morph elephants or whatever and bring this whole lot down."

"Oh, very subtle, Rachel. That would probably just make the whole place malfunction, and who knows what the neighborhood will end up with then?"

"It might be the only way," I said, speculating.

"What? You're backing up Rachel's insane idea?"

"We can't do that to this system," I said, thinking allowed, "because it might control too many other systems. But, if we can work out where exactly which tank is holding the chemical, maybe we could find some way to put a leak in it. Shut it down completely."

"That's the way to go," said Rachel happily. "Why don't you and Ax do the thinking, and I'll morph to elephant and get ready to do some serious stomping?"

"You'll help us work it out too," I said. "No one morphs until we know for sure which tank is holding the chemical."

We started rummaging though the folders and files, just like we had in the main building. Unfortunately, these folders were even older and in no particular order.

"Hey," said Rachel. "This file is really old and dusty, but it has finger prints on it, where the dust had been wiped away. And all the papers inside are new and in good condition."

"Bring it over here," I said, clearing a space on the desk. She spread the papers out onto the table and I peered that them. There was a map, some letters stapled together and a bunch of other stuff.

"There's a copy of that letter giving permission for the new pipework," I said. And there's another one dated a few mouths before that. They must have built that system, and are now planning a new one."

"There's some plans for a new container as well," said Philip.

"Let me have a look at the map," I said. "Yeah. Look at this. The new container is connected to the new pipe system. It runs directly to the reservoir by this pipe here." I traced the route with my finger, hoping the others were following.

"There's a report on it's progress as well," Philip said, picking up another sheet of grids, tables and text. "Carried out by a Mr. Michael Adams."

"Hey!" said Rachel suddenly. "I know that guy. He used to teach technology at our old school."

"Yeah, you're right," said Marco. "And I saw him at The Sharing yesterday evening. He must be a Controller and working on this scheme."

"Which means this container must be the one that holds the chemical," I said. "Tank DZ3. About ten meters to the right of this building. We should be able to see it."

We peered out of the dusty window, and sure enough, there was a brand new looking container just behind one of the circular pools. It was a large, upright cylinder, white in color, with stenciled-on letters and numbers. It was connected to a pipe which became buried in the ground.

"Ax, can you ask Ferdie what the letters on that tank say?" I asked, not wanting to risk shouting out and anyone hearing my voice. I knew we'd be making a heck of a lot of noise in a few minutes, but I still felt it was safer to remain inconspicuous for as long as possible.

--Of course, prince Jake,-- Ax replied. Then, --Ferdinand? Can you make out a large, white, cylindrical tank about ten of your meters to the west of this building?--

"Ax, they're everybody's meters, not just ours," Marco muttered.

--Um, yeah,-- I heard Ferdie call. --Is that the one which holds the chemical?--

--Yes, we believe so. But we need to be sure. Can you read any of the writing on it? It is too dark for our eyes to make out.--

--There's a load of random numbers on one side,-- Ferdie said. --And Some kind of warning sign. Some black letters…D-Z-3,-- I think.

"DZ3," said Marco. "That's the one."

--I do not believe so,-- blinked Ax. "Ferdinand told us it said D-_Zed_-Three. We are looking for D-_Zee_-Three. Now, I do not say that I am an expect in human- --

"It's just the English way of pronouncing Z," I said. "They're the same letter."

--Ah. Zed. Zee. Zed. Zee.--

"Great," said Marco. "Now he's starting to play with mouth sounds as an Andalite."

"Well, if we've got the right tank, what are we waiting for?" asked Rachel. "I say we power up and start causing some serious damage!"

"Ok, ok!" I said, exasperated. "Just don't go over board, ok? And this is probably going to alert the Controllers to our presence, so get ready for a fight. I'll let the others know. Everyone else; pick your most powerful morphs, get outside and start morphing."


	17. Chapter 17: The Rampage

Chapter 17

My skin became rough and gray. I piled on muscle over muscle. My eyesight grew dim, but I was still able to make out a huge, sharp horn as it grew out from my forehead. I dropped forward onto all fours, my human legs no longer able to support the huge weight that my body was becoming. I was fast becoming a rhino - a morph I'd acquired not too long ago. This was only the second time I'd used it.

"Lucky it's dark," said Philip, who was growing shaggy black hair all over his body. "Otherwise we'd be seen straight away."

"I think we're going to get seen anyway," I replied. I started to say something else, but then my human mouth was suddenly replaced by the large, wide mouth of the rhino.

--Whoa,-- said Ferdie, who was still gliding above us in owl morph. --That is one frightening looking morph you have there, Jake.--

--You should take a look at Rachel,-- I said, glancing over at her. She too was growing huge and heavy, but a lot larger than I would ever be. Enormous ears, the size of beach towels were flapping around her head. Her skin, like mine, was becoming gray and leathery. Long, ivory tusks extruded from her mouth. Her short, dainty nose became a long, powerful trunk. She was, of course, becoming an African elephant.

--I love this morph!-- she trumpeted. --It's so wild and powerful!-- She took a step forward, waving her mighty trunk, almost hitting Philip, who had morphed a musk ox.

--Careful!-- he warned, stepping awkwardly out of the way. --I think you can do a bit more damage than you think with that pachyderm, Rachel.--

--Sorry!-- she called, gleefully. --It's just I feel so amazing when I'm in this morph.--

--Maybe we should get with what we came to do,-- said Marco callously. He was in his gorilla morph, which was also his main battle morph. Ax was himself. He might have looked rather small and puny compared with the rest of us, but I've seen the damage that boy can do with that tail of his.

--Yeah, let's go!-- Rachel cried, thundering off towards the tank, eyeing it happily.

--Don't go mad!-- I warned. --And keep an eye out for Controllers.--

--Don't worry, I'll do that,-- said Ferdie, who was now perched on top of the building, watching us with interest. The moonlight reflected off his creamy and white feathers.

We set to work, causing as much damage as we could to the tank. Rachel stampeded straight into the thing, causing it to topple sideways. The metal began to crunch under the pressure. I ploughed into it, head on. My horn just went straight through the casing, like a hot needle into butter. I barely even felt anything. Cold, clear liquid began to pour out of it and soak the surrounding grass.

--Yeee hah!-- Rachel was screaming, whacking the thing over and over again with her trunk. Ax was striking over and over again with his tail, as if it was a Hork-Bajir. Several gaping gashes opened in the tanks' side, and the chemical spurted out like water cascading from a burst dam.

--Try to keep out of the liquid,-- I heard Philip say. --We still don't know for sure what damage it can do.--

He was ramming the pipe work with his large, curved horns, trying to dislodge the connection. Eventually, he dislodged a pipe and was hit by another surge of liquid.

--That had better be the right tank!-- Ferdie laughed. Although, if I'm honest, I think he was feeling as little jealous. Ferdie seemed to have the same enthusiam for a little ramgaing as did Rachel.

--Cassie has heard what you are doing by the way, Jake,-- he said after watching the liquid run over the grass and into the bushes. --She's complaining that you are going to affect the surrounding wildlife.--

--Well, too late now. I think we're about done anyway,-- I said. --Everyone, back off! We've done plenty of damage here.--

Rachel gave one last whack with her trunk, then sank reluctantly away from the demolished tank.

--Guys!-- called Ferdie suddenly. --There's a bunch of Controllers coming! They're allcarrying Dracons!--

--They know we're here,-- I said.

--Well duh,-- aid Marco. --We've only been tearing the place apart for the last five minutes. I'm surprised it took them this long to get over here.--

--Ferdie? Can you go warn the others?-- I called. --Get them to go battle morphs, but keep everyone back until I say. You and Tobias stay as birds. There's five of us here already. We don't need to involve everyone.--

He flapped off towards the wood, and I turned to face the others.

--Philip - I need to remorph. Can't fight in this thing - the eyesight isn't good enough. Can you lead the team and keep any controllers away from me until I'm in tiger morph?--

--Absolutely,-- he said. I hoped his army training had prepared him well enough to carry out an attack against a bunch of Controllers. I ran behind one of the circular pools, which where raised a meter or above the ground. I demorphed as I ran, feeling the speed and strength leave me, but my eyesight returning.

--Rachel - to my left!-- Philip commanded. --Marco - get beside Rachel. Ax, get beside me. If there only a few Controllers, this whole thing shouldn't be too difficult. The main thing is to keep their focus away from Jake as he morphs.--

"Andalites!" shouted the first Controller, glaring at Ax with a look of pure hatred. "Let's go!"

The human Controllers poured into the action, their Dracon beams firing. They circled Philip and the others, signalling and calling to one another in a mixture of English and their own Yeerk language. There were ten or eleven of them. At least three of them were holding rifles as well as Dracons. I focused my mind on the tiger, feeling the changes begin.

--Oh yeah!-- cried Rachel, as she knocked down one guy with one casual flick of her trunk.

--I think our man power is a little over the top here,-- said Marco, as he picked up another controller and threw him against the wall. --I mean, an elephant, a tiger, a cow and an Andalite, for ten guys? That's not really a fair fight now, is it?--

--I am an ox, not a cow,-- snapped Philip. --But you're right, Marco. Everyone? The power is a bit one-sided here. Try to limit the amount of damage you all do.--

I finished morphing and launched myself into the action. My acute tiger senses immediately picked up another, slightly disturbing, scent. Another big cat. It must be Sam in leopard morph. I forced myself to ignore the tigers' urges to confront the animal and ran towards the nearest Controller.

--Arrghh!-- cried Marco, suddenly. --I've been hit!-- I looked at him and saw a nasty semi-circular burn in his rubbery chest.

--Rachel - take his place!-- I ordered. Elephant skin is tougher than gorilla skin. A Dracon beam or a bullet probably wouldn't cause much concern.

--They have Hork-Bajir, Jake,-- I heard Ferdie shout. He was now soaring high above us, watching the action, keeping out of range of the Controller's weapons. Soon, I could make out a large, black vehicle making its way up one of the roads. The doors flung open and five or six of the monstrous bladed lizards jumped out onto the ground and formed up in front of the human Controllers. One of the humans who held both a Dracon and a rifle threw his Dracon to one of the Hork-Bajir.

--Tables are turning,-- said Marco anxiously, as he threw a heavy-fisted punch at the nearest Hork-Bajir. It fell back, stunned, but was not knocked out.

--Nah, they're not!-- cried Rachel, trumpeting and galloping towards three of the Hork-Bajir. They went down like pins in a bowling alley. One of the humans counter attacked, firing a stream of rounds from his automatic rifle. Many of them hit Rachel, who bellowed again, and ploughed further into the action. The fight was getting more and more bloody by the minute.

--Sam! Maggie! We could do with some more force!-- I called. --Just two of you, though,-- I added. I hoped that Cassie would see my point and stay back. Out of all of us, she is the most reluctant to attack another living creature, even Controllers. Especially Controllers, I should say, because they are not under their own control.

A movement to my right! I leapt towards a human Controller, knocking him onto his back. He kept hold of his Dracon, however.

--Ahhh!-- I cried, as I felt my shoulder explode in pain. I gritted my teeth and roared, knocking the guy's weapon out of his hand. I gave him a quick slap with the back on one frying-pan-sized paw, and he went out, cold.

--Jake - behind you!-- shouted Maggie. I spun round, face to face with a Hork-Bajir. I powered my legs and sailed towards him, burying my teeth in his flesh. Beside me, I saw Sam in leopard morph tearing at another Hork-Bajir's arm. Maggie was a slick black wolf, growling at the human Controllers and keeping them back. A bullet skimmed her flank. She collapsed in shock suddenly, howling in pain, but was soon back on her feet, albeit a little unsteady.

--Ugh!-- cried a voice, suddenly. I saw a small white shape fall to earth out of the corner of my eye.

--Prince Jake!-- called Ax, who was whipping his tail over and over again and another Hork-Bajir. --Ferdinand has been shot!--

--Flawless!-- cried Sam, leaping off the Hork-Bajir and running over to her friend's lifeless body. Philip immediately took over, swinging his powerful horns at the injured Hork-Bajir.

--We should get out,-- I called. --There are only a few humans and one Controller still standing. Ax and I will handle them. Everyone else - get to owl morph now! Sam - get Ferdie out of here!--

Sam didn't need to be told twice. She had already picked his owl body up gently in her mouth and was now running towards the fence. She slipped through a gap under the wire and began to demorph at top speed, running as she morphed.

Marco and Rachel were galloping off into the wood. Rachel, too big to squeeze under he fence, simply charged straight through, bringing the whole thing down. Marco followed her, and they disappeared into the trees to demorph.

I took down the last of the Hork-Bajir, and Ax used the side of his tail blade to knock the remaining humans unconscious, before making our way back into the woods. We were both seriously injured - Ax was bleeding severely from the wound in his flank, and I had endured several more Dracon burns.

--Where's Tobias?-- I asked, as we met up with the others.

--He's with me,-- replied Rachel, who was a disturbing mix of elephant and human girl.

--What about Ferdie?--

"Cassie is with him," gasped Sam, who was nearly human. "She's trying to get him to demorph."

I looked over at the wolf, who was leaning over the barn owl.

--Ferdie!-- she kept shouting, over and over again. --Ferdie - demorph! Do it! Do it now!--

Sam, now fully human, ran over to them and tried to wake him. Marco opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again as Maggie glared at him.

"Everyone else, get to owl," I commanded, turning away from the harrowing scene.

We morphed as quickly as we could, in case there were other Controllers on the scene. Philip was the first to morph. He took a quick look at his brother and flapped his wings and took off into the sky, circling above us with Tobias.

Finally-

"Oh, thank god!" cried Sam. "Ferdie - demorph! Hurry!"

Ferdie had at last awoken. Cassie gently encouraged him to demorph, guiding him through the process.

"Cassie! How…?" panted Sam, looking at awe at Cassie. "You got him to demorph!" She leaned over and embraced her in an enthusiastic hug.

--Ferdie! Good god, you're ok. Guys - you had better get to owl ASAP,-- said Philip, watching them. I could hear a note of intense relief in his voice.

Ferdie stood up, breathless and confused, but no longer wounded. A fantastic bonus of morphing is that it heals injuries. Very useful after a battle. He narrowed his eyes as he concentrated back on his barn owl morph, and I saw the chages begin. He was going to be ok.

--Great job, Cassie,-- I said quietly in private thought-speak. --That was amazing what you just did then.--

--Lucky you kept me out of battle,-- she replied modestly, taking to the air. She knew, of course, the real reason why I kept her behind. --Thanks, Jake,-- she added.

I watched as Sam and Ferdie finished their morphs and took into the night sky, flapping up to meet us. We flew back to Cassie's barn in a widespread formation, so as not to draw attention to ourselves. It was mostly in silence, although I had the feeling that Ferdie and Sam were speaking to one another privately.

Another blow for the Yeerks, I thought. Maybe not our biggest blow towards them yet, but it should certainly show their process. I powered my wings harder, hoping to get a little closer to Cassie.


	18. Chapter 18: The Fugitives' Home

Chapter 18

We spent night back in our own beds - or, in the fugitive's case, their own huts - trying to recover from the night's mission. With any luck, our plan would have slowed the Yeerks' schemes to infest more Controllers, and we'd done it without getting caught. But most importantly, we'd done it as a team. Our first mission involving the whole group, American and British Animorphs. And we'd done it well. Hopefully, things would go this well in the future. I had a good feeling they would. Sam seemed good at her job, and the others respected her. Philip was a great commander, but since he had something against making decisions which would affect the rest of the group, he was perfectly content to act as a sort of second-in-command to both Sam and I. Maggie and Cassie were getting along well, and Rachel finally had another daredevil to relate to. Marco was finally beginning to trust Sam, and even Ax seemed to take well to them, particularly Philip, who he saw as a 'warrior', due to his time in the military. I knew that things wouldn't always go so well, and they'd be arguments, disagreements and misunderstandings, but I knew that if we could get off on the right foot and all share a common cause for fighting this war, we'd be better of than we'd ever been before.

"Ferdie! Don't ride him so fast! He's not fit enough yet to gallop!"

"Oops, sorry, Cassie, I suppose I got rather carried away."

It was Sunday evening, and with the exception of Ax, who was feeding, we were gathered at Cassie's farm, getting ready to take the new Animorph's stuff down to the valley. Piled up outside the stables were backpacks stuffed full of warm clothes, sleeping bags, food, penknives, tents and other random bits and pieces that they'd been buying over the past few days, using Ferdie's online bank account and Rachel's credit card and knowledge of the mall. Everything they needed to survive in the forest. Mostly designer. Mostly in the sale.

"I think we're going to have to make at least two trips for all this equipment," I said, throwing a couple in camping mats on to the pile. "You won't be able to take it all in one go."

"Can we not take some more horses?" asked Sam. "Philip and Rachel, you can ride too, can't you?"

"Oh, Cassie said the other horses are all on medication," Rachel said, absently wiping some mud from her shirt. "These are the only two we can take."

"How much stuff do you lot need?" asked Marco, gazing incredulously at the substantial pile. "Sam? Are you four planning to build a city down there?"

"Just trying to make ourselves a little more comfortable," Sam replied. She turned to Cassie, who had just come out of the stables carrying armfuls of leather tack.

"All right, Cassie?" she called. "Shall we get the first load on the go?"

"Sure," Cassie replied. "Better do it before Ferdie wears the horses out."

Ferdie was cantering happily around the paddocks, riding a rather wild looking stallion with ease. He looked like he'd been sitting in a saddle his whole life and was blatantly trying to impress Sam. Cassie began tacking up a gorgeous black mare, one which I recognised as her very first morph. The morph she used to rescue a single woman from the Yeerk Pool when we first became involved in this battle.

"Ferdie, come and grab some bags," said Philip. "This is a job, not a match. Stop messing about."

Ferdie trotted back over to the stables, and Philip passed him up a couple of rucksacks. He put the larger one on his back as normal, and wore the other one across his chest. Cassie grabbed some bags and mounted her own horse.

"Jake?" she called. "Are you and the others going to follow as birds?"

"Yeah, I think we could do that," I said. "What's the weather like for flying?" I asked Tobias, who was circling overhead.

--It's great,-- he replied. --Plenty of uplifts, and if we follow the road, we might catch a few thermals. It's going to be really nice over the valley.--

"Excellent," I said. "Right, why don't you two make a start, and the rest of us will follow you down there." I waved to Cassie, and the two of them set off into the forest, the motioned to the others to follow me into the barn.

We stripped down to our morphing suits and began to morph, out of sight on anyone working on the farm. A peregrine falcon, an osprey, a large bald eagle, an even larger white-tailed eagle, a buzzard, a lanner falcon and a red tailed hawk took to the skies. We spread out over a couple of kilometres, gliding at different altitude, but always making sure that we were close enough to thought-speak. It was a beautiful evening. There were virtually no clouds, it was warm but not hot, and there was a nice, faint breeze. Perfect for flying. It was times like these that flying really made up for the horrors of the battles we'd had to endure. Keeping Cassie and Ferdie in our sight, the seven of us soared over the forests, out over the meadows where Ax and Tobias live, and down towards the valley.

--Guys, you need to head right a bit more,-- called Tobias to Ferdie and Cassie. --You can't really see from down there, but the trees are thicker ahead. You need to go round them to get to the valley.--

Tobias guided the two of them down. He was the one most familiar with the route, having spent the most time with the Hork-Bajir. After an hour or so of gentle flying, I let myself slip into the trance-like state needed to find the valley. A moment later, the trees seemed to open up, as if by magic, and the beautiful valley was revealed to me.

"Toby!" cried Cassie, as the young seer came into view. "Good to see you again."

Ferdie and Cassie rode the horses down towards the Hork-Bajir. The route was pretty steep, but the two of them were experienced riders, and made their way down with ease.

"Hello, Cassie," replied Toby. She was soon followed by Jara Hamee and Ket Halpak, plus a group of other Hork-Bajir. "How was the journey down here?"

"Oh, it was fine," she replied, jumping off her horse and tying the reins round a tree.. "Great to get the horses out again."

"Not as good as becoming them, of course," added Ferdie, "but cool all the same." He dismounted his horse in one fluid moment, and began unloading the bags. I spilled some air from under my wings and dropped down to meet them, demorphing as soon as I was on the ground. I greeted the Hork-Bajir, and the rest of us, apart from Tobias, did the same.

--Heya, Jara,- said Maggie, as her wings slowly became hands. Maggie is a slow morpher, but like Cassie, she has some ability to control the order in which things morphed. She was trying to make her morph go as smoothly as possible, so as not to alarm the Hork-Bajir who were still not used to watching them morph.

"You have food and bed?" asked Jara Hamee. "We help take to hut?"

Maggie finished her demorph and nodded.

"Thank you," she replied politely, passing the Hork-Bajir the sleeping bags. Jara Hamee picked them up gently in his huge claws, so as not to tear the material, then bounded over to one of the trees and nimbly made his way up into the branches.

"Whoa," said Marco. "I was right. You guys are building a city down here." Marco hadn't been down the valley since Sam and the others had arrived here.

Sam laughed and started rummaging through a rucksack. "The Hork-Bajir have been really helpful," she said. "They helped us build those two tree houses up there, huts n the ground, ladders and everything." She pointed out two big huts made out of logs and rough planks, high up in the branches. There was a sort of balcony thing outside them, and a ladder made out of vines and sticks which they would be able to climb to reach the huts if they weren't in morph.

"I always begged my dad to build me a tree house like that," Marco said in mock disappointment. "Never happened. It's not fair."

"Well, I'm sure you can join us for a sleepover," Maggie laughed.

"Uh, maybe not," he said. "Not sure if I could stand the bugs and the cold."

Ferdie laughed, and threw him a bag of shoes. "Want to take them over to the cave over there?" Ferdie grabbed a bag of dried food and the two of them wandered over to the cave. Philip and Sam took the rest of their stuff up to their tree houses, then began to remorph. Cassie and Ferdie remounted, and we made our way back up to the barn again, enjoying the lazy journey back.


	19. Chapter 19: Health Scares

Chapter 19

That night, I was sitting in the lounge, half trying to finish my homework, half trying to ignore Tom's attempts to drag me along to another Sharing meeting. I was tired and worn out from the day's work and the battle the night before, wishing that I could just go to bed.

"You could do some real good for the community, you know," he was saying, as I rolled my eyes and tried to stop myself from falling asleep. "Didn't you hear the news about that water facility this afternoon? We're helping clean that all up as well."

My ears pricked up at this.

"Water facility?" I asked, trying not to catch his eye. "What happened?"

Tom raised his eyebrows. "You haven't heard? What, have you been living in a closet for the last three hours? Dad's been on about it all afternoon. It's on all the local news and everything."

"What happened?" I repeated, knowing the answer.

"That water pump up by Grove. Some gang broke in last night and wrecked the place. And I mean totally. Completely thrashed up one of the tanks. Vandalised everything in their path. They even shot some poor security guy. Left a district without running water last night."

I knew what we'd done last night wouldn't stay secret for long. It wasn't as if we'd bombed the school, or anything as big as that, but it was sure a blow to the Yeerks, and would have had an effect on the local community. I supposed it was only a matter of time before the media would be on to it.

"Wow," I said, pretending to be shocked. "I wonder who they were. Did you say The Sharing were helping clearing up?" I asked.

"Yeah. We were out this afternoon, helping clear up some of the mess. Those kids left the place in pretty bad shape, I can tell you. We're going out again tomorrow, after school. Maybe you could join us?"

"Eh, think I'm busy," I said vaguely. Obviously, if The Sharing were helping to clear up, the Yeerks would be making sure that there would be not a trace of anything remotely alien left at the scene of the battle. No strange Hork-Bajir blood. No damaged Dracon beams. No tiger fur or rhino hide to cause a suspicion. The Yeerks were good at covering their tracks.

"Shame," Tom went on. I turned back to my math notebook and tried to tune him out. But it was difficult to concentrate on algebra when thoughts of last night's alien battles are spinning in your head.

Just then, my dad entered the living room. He settled himself down onto the couch and threw his evening newspaper on the coffee table. I grabbed the paper, flicking though hastily for any news of what we'd done. My eyes landed on a medium-sized article, containing a page's worth of news coverage, and a large black and white photo of the aftermath of the facility. I looked at the picture of the damage we'd cause last night. I could feel Tom's eyes watching me. I skimmed through, pretending to be mildly interested in what it said. There wasn't much to be worried about. Just a last-minute story pretty much saying what Tom had told me. Probably written by Controllers, though. That a couple of street kids, possibly gang members, had broken into the facility, then vandalised some of the tanks and tried to hack into the computers. They said that the police didn't yet know why they broke in, or who the kids were, but anyone who had any information should phone some hotline. Your usual newspaper story. No sign at all that it was really a cover up. To be honest, even the picture didn't really show much damage to the place. I think it was just the media was making a big thing about it, as if they were over-emphasising the fact that it had been teenage vandals, and nothing else, that was the cause. I placed the newspaper casually down on the table, as if I was already bored with the story. My dad saw the page and looked up.

"Oh yeah," he said, flicking though the TV channels. "You just been reading about that water thing? I just got a call from one of the consultants at the hospital earlier. They are putting out a warning to local residents over on the east side of town not to drink any tap water until that whole thing is cleared up."

"Really?" I asked. "People are being advised not to drink the water?"

"Apparently. Everyone is being told to boil their water or buy bottled stuff for the next week or so. Scientists had found that some chemical was leaking into one of the main tanks and causing the water to become contaminated. That's what was causing people to become ill. The vandals were probably a good thing in a way. The damage they caused showed exactly where the chemical was seeping into the reservoirs. Environmental agencies are on it now."

I wasn't too sure what to make of this. People were being advised not to drink the tap water sounded like a good thing, but there was still a chance this could all be another Yeerk attempt at salvaging their problems.

I glanced indifferently at Tom. His eyes were narrowed, and he seemed to be deep in thought. He didn't exactly look pleased with this news.

"Dad?" I asked nonchalantly. "You said this news came from the consultants at the hospital? Any idea which department? I've got a friend whose mother is a doctor there, just wondered if they would know anything about it at school tomorrow."

"Emergency room, I think," my dad replied, shrugging.

So not the department that the Yeerks had taken over. This didn't mean that this was definitely not another cover up, but it did look less likely.

I decided to call Marco, and we chatted briefly about what I'd heard, being careful to use the same sort of language we'd read in the newspapers, just incase Tom or anyone else was listening in.

"If you ask me, buddy, I'd say for once we've got some luck on our side," Marco said. "If everyone is being told to buy drinking water, they can't drink anything that's dirty or contaminated. And that means they won't… you know. Get ill and have to go to hospital."

I heaved a sigh of relief. Marco is probably the most cynical and sceptical member of the team, but I trusted his judgement. If he thought that something was safe, it usually was.

"So you think it was all a good thing?" I said, referring to the mission. "I mean, obviously people are going to be pretty irritated for the next few days, but at least they'll be ok."

"Yeah," he agreed. "Plus, that department at the hospital will have a bit of weight taken off their hands! And, who knows?" he said, trying to make a joke, "it might even affect the school and we could have a three-day weekend!"

I laughed. "Don't think we'll be that lucky, dude!"

I hung up and went up to my room, putting my finally finished homework in my bag. I could already hear Tom picking up the phone, probably ready to call Chapman or one of his other fellow Yeerks. I left him, and laid back on my bed, gazing absently out of the window. Another day, another blow to the Yeerks. Without people drinking their water, the Yeerks were unable to lure people to their department at the hospital. And with fewer people to lure, the less Controllers that would be made. For once, it seemed like our mission had been a success. We'd worked well as a team, we'd had our scares and our uncertainties, but we'd done it and prevented the Yeerks from carrying on with their plans. If only all our missions would be so easy.


	20. Author's Notes

Author's Notes

Thanks again for everyone's great reviews!

Disclaimer: I'm sure you know all this already…I don't own the Animorphs, otherwise I'd be very rich, and I would rename Jake as Paul and give him an English accent. But Sam, Ferdie, Philip, Maggie and Asha are my guys!

I want to do a front cover morph for this story; it will most likely be Jake morphing a rat. I know that's not a very exciting morph, but it's the only one he does in this story that hasn't been shown on any of the front covers of the books.

**I'd like to thank:**

_Quillian_: All your reviews have been so motivating!

_prurientmind_ – Thanks for pointing out all my silly factual errors!And for being such a loyal reader.

In Upcoming Fics

_**The Terrorist**: The Chee come across information about a plan to bomb a building of government offices in the capital - offices they know are infested with Controllers. They think it might be an act of terrorism, where the perpetrators know nothing of what is really going on in regards to the Yeerks. Should the Jake, Sam and the others let the plan go ahead - a major blow for the Yeerks, or intervene and save potentially hundreds of lives and the state's morale?_


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